Chapter 172 The Impasse.
Chapter 172 The Impasse.
"Master, what are your orders?" From the moment Alvine appeared behind Sylvia, she asked him for her serious expression that bore no suspicion of slackening.
Alvine waved his hand with a no. "Sylvia, you don't need to be more formal with me. When you are nonchalant that I feel most comfortable with you."
"If that's what you want, then I will try not to change anything." She said while raising her head to him with a placid expression.
Alvine could not know what was wrong with her that suddenly forced her to change her behavior towards him, but his curiosity did not push him to ask her questions about it; it should surely be her new hobby.
"Are you able to open a dimensional tunnel that will allow the reinforcements that have remained in both kingdoms to come here safely?" Alvine no longer focused on Sylvia's change, he had more important things to settle for now.
"Master, if you want to bring them back here, it won't require too much effort. As long as both are in the same place, I can directly teleport to their kingdoms and bring them with me." She offered him the simplest solution; who consumes little mana.
Alvine only nodded with nonchalance. "Well, the main thing is that you can do it without too much pressure." A fine smile adorned his lips while he complimented her. "Let's go to the palace, at the moment, the queen must have gathered all the other kings, a strategy is needed to minimize the victims. Follow me, we'll see what they intend to do to counter this scourge."
Just with these words, he slowly went inward as the guards respectfully greeted him as he crossed the long endless corridors.
Meanwhile, as Alvine had planned, Liliana was currently with seven people. The fourth counselor, who had opposed the marriage between Alvine and Liliana, was present too.
He had a placid look that carried a kind of wisdom like a being who had unraveled the mysteries of the celestial dao. Like the other persons in his species, he had pale white skin, scarlet red eyes, and slightly pointed ears. But what made him unique to others was his strangely chivalrous clothing with a long rapier on his waist. He was entirely dressed in white, his boots, His long coat, his gloves, everything was white; even his beard and hair were no exception!
But unlike the (natural) colors of Alvine's hair, the unique color of his hair was due to her advanced age. His name was Vandel Sunshield, one of the most important families who have the title of Marquis.
Apart from him, the king of the ice elves and the king of the Kelspies were all in the company of their wives and supreme general.
"Well, now that you know the current situation, it's time to know how to triumph against them." Liliana gave the news while she was enjoying her (drink) that she had not decided to swallow everything so far. Instead, the content of her glass was like her most precious treasure she could not decide to consume everything or leave it behind for the next days.
"To defeat them? It's funny to hear these words, even from you, queen of vampires. It's a horde with more than a million magical beasts! The weakest among them are as strong as our soldiers. Even if we have the advantage of number with our ten million soldiers, the quality of their armies is too higher than the number of our troops. Rather, we must think about our survival, not a victory that will turn into a butchery!" Tugra made his opinion heard throughout the assembly.
Even if his words seemed cowardly, everyone knew he was right. Therefore, no one dared to call him cowardly.
After a moment of embarrassing silence, the king of the kelspies clears one’s throat before addressing the queen of the vampires. "Ahem, queen of the vampires, what do you know about their true strengths? Do we have a chance to win against them? Or at least... to survive in the face of such a colossal army?" Being considered the wisest of his predecessors, the current king of the Kelspies did not usurp his title.
Instead of being hot blood like Tugra, the king of the Elves, and seeing everything in black and white, he was rather the type to integrate other colors closer to these two colors to better assess each situation with coldness.
Hearing her question, Liliana sighed before shaking her head. "I will be clear about our situation and not hide anything from you, since you are the rulers of your peoples, therefore, you also have responsibilities just like me." She began her explanations with this sentence that she had pronounced serenely.
"Without external help, let's not even talk about victory, we have zero percent chance of survival!" She announced to the whole assembly with a platitude.
"..."
"..."
"..."
Seeing their expressions, she nodded her head of appreciation in the face of their cold blood. "The King of the Elves was right when he said that the weakest beasts among the horde are at the same level as our soldiers, I would even say that they are slightly stronger than them! As for emperor-rank beasts, except for the sovereigns and generals of your two kingdoms, even fifty soldiers gathered against a single emperor beast will not have a chance of surviving in front of it! And from what I could count, there are at least three hundred thousand beasts of the emperor rank!"
"Three hundred thousand?" The Queen of the Elves stammered when she asked for confirmation of this incredulous number.
"Yes, there are probably more than that; but that's what my magical perception had counted. At most, kings and their generals can defeat three or four of them before running out of energy! But there is always scarier than them. For above the emperor beasts are the divine beasts that are at least fifty times stronger than the emperor beasts!" She said with certainty.
"!!!"
"!!!"
"!!!"
Even if the room was well ventilated, Liliana could still feel the room temperature rise drastically. Obviously, she could guess the shocks that the others are going through right now.
She herself knew that she had dosed her information a little, otherwise divine beasts are stronger than emperor beasts by at least 90 or 100 times!
Even Alvine will not be able to defeat them if he relied solely on his strength of holy rank without the help of his law or shadow affinity!
"As if that were not enough, there is not a divine beast that accompanies this horde, but four!" She affirmed by ending her briefing with these last words that aspiring with it all hope of the sovereigns.
Battle was not an option, but the retreat was not one either! They were like mice who were intimidated by an army of cats. Their strengths, their arrogances, their statues, more nothing mattered to them; now.
The world in which they lived had no room for the weak. Alvine, who was in the room under the effects of shadow camouflage with Sylvia, since the beginning of Liliana's briefing could feel the aura of despair stink all the room.
'Sigh, once again, this world shows its true face. The weak such as we will have no choice but to become fertilizers for the strong or force themselves to climb to the top. I would sacrifice my soul if necessary to be at the top of the food chain.' He says to himself by observing the situation while leaving the reins to Liliana.
After spending two minutes in absurd silence, while everyone was thinkings about finding a solution, the king of the Kelspies ended the dull silence by proposing his idea. "Do we have any way to reach an agreement with them? Even if it is to become their sub-fifes?"
"King of Kelsp! Did you fall so low to the point of losing your head?!" Tugra thundered from the moment he heard the proposal of the King of the Kelspies.
"Sigh, death doesn't scare me. But as the vampire queen mentioned, we have the responsibility for the thousands of people on our shoulders. We certainly have the rights of the commands, but it is only to lead them to a better future! We have no right to lead them to their graves, Even if we were the ones who gave them life!" He replied in a frustrated tone when he saw the narrow-mindedness of Tugra who cared about his honor and status despite though his kingdom and his people might be exterminated.
'How could such a naive person claim the throne of the Elves?!' He wondered with an apathetic air.
"We have been proud warriors since the creation of our race, dying with dignity on the battlefield is more honorable than enchained like the slaves!" Tugra did not retreat despite the reasonable words of the king of the Kelspies.
'Interesting, I still have a debt to this man, but now that he has just said these words, I would be happy to offer him two choices; to be reduced to being my slave for eternity or dying with dignity. Your sentence has just been decided, king of the Elves, Tugra.' A mocking smile lifted the corners of Alvine's lips which instinctively made Tugra shiver despite his ignorance about Alvine's presence in the room.
'Sigh, as for you, King of the Kelspies, your bravery always leaves me in perplexity. Few sovereigns sacrifice themselves to this degree for their people. You are really not worthy to be a sovereign If I judge you with the judgments of sovereigns, but you are the bravest man I have ever seen since I set foot in this new world; if I look at you from another angle. A father who cares about the well-being of his children, a husband who cares about the well-being of his wife, and finally, a most dignified king who considers his subjects as his family for whom he is ready to do everything for their survival. Unfortunately, your heart and bravery have no place in this world. Garyth did not have the right to create such a race in his world, you were born in the wrong place, KING OF KELSPIES! This cruel world has no place for you.'
Alvine stammered these words for himself by seeing his former self through the king of kelspies.
But the queen's voice soon brought him back from the past to the present. "King of the Kelspies, I can understand your worries, but the enemy we are facing at the moment is unfortunately not lenient enough to make slaves. The only goal he has set himself is the annihilation of our lives so that our vital energies return to the core of the planet. All this to tell you that we have no choice but to fight for our survival." She spoke these words with a bitter smile that could not hide her sadness.
"Queen of vampires, what are your strengths in all this?" The queen of the Kelspies finally ends up asking these words with a bitter smile by impulsively watching her husband get scolded on both sides without having enough solid arguments to defend himself. She was the person who understood her husband's heart better than anyone else in the room.
"Sigh, my counselors can kill a divine beast if they join forces at the same time, but I fear that the other divine beasts will sit wisely to see this spectacle. As for my soldiers, they have no problem defeating holy beasts and emperors, but the number is too high for my subordinates who are numerically inferior. I myself can perfectly take care of a divine beast without any problem, despite everything, there will always be two divine beasts in freedom. We will have no chance in this battle." She communicated to others the help she and her army will be able to do.
*Sylvia, I think it's time. * Alvine calmly pronounced these words by revealing his presence in the room as a celestial hero who came to bring hope to desperate beings. Even if it was not what he imagined, his apparition will soon look like this example for the others.