Coal Ball the bat's current physical form was truly bizarre - its body size wasn't much different from a local dog. A bat's wings are fused with its arms and legs, which is why they're called chiropterans; fundamentally, it's the hand structure that becomes enlarged and flattened, evolving into wing shape, which also results in their limbs being relatively weak. But now, Coal Ball was completely different. It seemed to be in some kind of mutation phase, its limbs becoming much thicker than before, and the wing structure appeared to be separating from its hands. The bones in its hands seemed to be splitting in two - one part extending toward the wings, the other separating into actual hands. However, because this was mid-evolution, its hands remained short and soft, without fully formed bones yet, and its wings drooped limply, unable to stiffen properly. This also meant it couldn't hang from the ceiling anymore, forced to squat in the corner like a dog. "Damn, that's ugly!" As the saying goes, a lord's heart is unpredictable and ever-changing! Lord Norton had just reached out to pat Coal Ball's head, then immediately slapped it across the head. The slapped Coal Ball looked quite aggrieved, using its two small hands - still partially fused with its wings and not fully separated - to cling to Norton's calf. Just as Norton had guessed, continuously feeding his flesh and blood to the bat accelerated its mutation process. This seemed to be a struggle against God for authority, so the entire mutation process was extremely slow, yet the bond between them grew increasingly intense, to the point where Norton could faintly sense Coal Ball's emotions. This transformation was completely different from the birth of new-style vampires. New-style vampires were more like Coal Ball injecting its mutated bloodline directly into human bodies, adding a segment of mutation code at the foundation of their genetic chain, allowing Norton to control their lives by manipulating this underlying code. However, most of that code still belonged to God, who could also control their lives, and with even more avenues of control. Whereas Coal Ball's mutation was more like Norton's flesh and blood gradually replacing all of its underlying code. The entire mutation process was essentially a code replacement process, thoroughly transforming the bat into Norton's creation. Therefore, new-style vampires and new-style werewolves couldn't truly be called Norton's creations. Currently, Norton's only real creation was Coal Ball - though even that wasn't complete yet. And this creature hadn't finished mutating; only when the mutation fully completed could Norton completely control it in every aspect. But even now, Norton could sense that Coal Ball's life status hierarchy was already lower than his own, and Norton could erase its life at will. So it wasn't that Norton lacked the ability to create minions - he had it, but it required long-term feeding of his own flesh and blood to replace these creatures' underlying code before he could truly control them completely like vampires developing their minions, whether physically or spiritually, whether in thought or emotion. ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩·𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢·𝔫𝔢𝔱 This creative ability to fundamentally change a species left Norton utterly awestruck. If transforming just one creature already made him this powerful, it was hard to imagine how terrifying the authority of God, who created all things, must be! "Ah!" Norton's eyes suddenly lit up as an idea popped into his head. "If I could get all creatures in this world to eat some of my flesh, wouldn't I be able to directly steal God's authority and become the true God?" However, Norton's somewhat dull red eyes didn't brighten much even with this idea. Because he immediately rejected his own thought. "Impossible! There wouldn't be enough of me to go around!" Norton remembered those creatures in the forest that had tried to hunt him. The only use for this ability, besides creating his true minions, was when encountering enemies he couldn't defeat - he could surrender and let them eat him alive. With Norton's recovery ability, before they could completely finish eating him, they might mutate to the point where their life hierarchy fell below Norton's, allowing him to turn defeat into victory. My body is so cunning! Norton placed Coal Ball back on the ground, then strode out of the great hall. The blinding sunlight shone on his body, bringing a burning pain like being scorched by fire. Evolution hadn't given him resistance to sunlight and Images of God; instead, his resistance was growing weaker. This evolutionary result that meant degeneration confirmed the conjecture in his mind. He truly wasn't evolving, but transforming from a corpse into a real vampire. Similar to Coal Ball's gradual code replacement, Norton was also gradually changing his underlying code. Except his code came from God. Feeling the burning pain of sunlight on his body, countless thoughts raced through Norton's mind, and he suddenly felt extremely powerless. "This world is utterly hopeless from beginning to end!" No life could escape God's judgment! Norton's recently uplifted heart shrank back again. As the saying goes, when you're not at this level, seeing God is like a frog at the bottom of a well seeing the sun and moon; but when you reach this level and glimpse even a fraction of its wonders, seeing God becomes like a mayfly beholding the vast sky! For Norton, who had personally experienced the status hierarchy, the caution and fear toward God were far more profound than even His Holiness the Pope's understanding. Rino City had returned to peace. Under Lord Norton's control, the vampires of Rino City once again embarked on large-scale construction, digging soil within the church day and night to open up tunnels while simultaneously raising and reinforcing the city walls. The area outside the church was too vast to develop properly. But inside the church, Norton decided to vigorously construct an enormous vampire castle, using towering, narrow high walls to block sunlight, serving as the vampires' main activity area during daytime. Most importantly, when the church sent troops, vampires could conveniently fight within this castle even during daylight hours. No one could resist Lord Norton's commands! Even some blood slaves were transferred to serve as laborers who could transport soil outside during daytime. Rino City's construction flourished, with a true dark city gradually taking shape. Meanwhile, the great war between the Papal States and the Boar Empire alliance had fully commenced. For this war, the Papal States mobilized eight states and forty cities, totaling eight thousand Church Knights heading to the battlefield, accompanied by two hundred thousand Papal States militiamen wearing soft armor or little armor. The Boar Empire alliance brought over a thousand lords great and small, totaling eight hundred thousand troops. However, a significant portion of these eight hundred thousand troops were logistics personnel, with actual combat troops comprising at most thirty percent. The great war had finally begun.