Novel Full Chapter 220: An Unthinkable Alliance
"Put an end to a demon king? But how?" one of the elves in the front row asked, his face pale with sheer terror.
"That beast demon king has an entire nation of demons actively supporting him!" a beastman exclaimed from the very back, raising his voice high above the rest of the crowd.
"Demon kings are far too powerful." one of the elders added, rubbing his wrinkled hands together in utter desperation. "There is absolutely no way we can defeat a demon king right in his own territory."
"Our king has lost his mind completely." several voices murmured throughout the crowd, looking at each other with profound panic.
Kenia took a rapid step forward, completely breaking the respectful distance. She raised her hands, directly clinging to the sleeves of Ryan’s dark trench coat, and looked him straight in the eyes with evident worry.
"Your Majesty, do you not think you are rushing into all of this? This is entirely excessive; it is a suicidal war." the elderly elf woman asked with a heavily trembling voice.
The other inhabitants all around her immediately nodded their heads, finding themselves in complete agreement with the mature woman’s heavy doubts.
Alicia began to lose her patience in the face of their sheer lack of faith. The wolf assistant began to constantly tap her right foot against the dirt, showing a clear annoyance at the doubts the people were displaying toward their sovereign.
She was having a hard time containing herself, and her magical aura showed she was clearly angered, making the hairs on her tail bristle sharply.
Irina, fully noticing the wolf girl’s hostility, raised her hand and began to give Alicia soft pats on the shoulder so she would calm down and not attack her own people.
The loud murmurs among the elves, the beastmen, and the elders in the rows did not stop, actively growing in intensity with every single passing second.
"There is no possible way that a few elves like us can do anything in a war like that." an elf woman said while holding her child tightly in her arms.
"Despite the fact that His Majesty’s party is of the S-rank, they cannot handle a demon king all by themselves." another of the council elders commented while shaking his head.
Ryan let out a profound sigh, fully filling his lungs with the cold air.
’It is completely normal for them to doubt upon hearing something like this.’ the boy thought, maintaining his completely inexpressive face in the face of his people’s chaos.
Then Ryan faked a brief cough, bringing his fist right up to his mouth.
"Cough, cough."
He attempted to casually call for their attention once again, but the panic was so great that absolutely no one stopped to listen to him and the heavy murmurs continued their course.
Upon seeing that they would not quiet down, he furrowed his brow and spoke with a loud and deep voice.
"That is enough!"
The shout of command cut right through the air of the training grounds like a sharp sword. Then they all turned toward him, falling completely silent all at once and keeping their gazes locked onto Ryan.
"Judging by your expressions, you are all thinking that I am a completely insane man." he said.
Ryan looked at all of them with a sharp and freezing gaze, beginning to project his incredibly heavy aura straight over the training grounds.
"It is not that, Your Majesty..." the elders and Kenia immediately began to excuse themselves, lowering their gazes with sheer shame and pure fear.
’But the fact that they are actually thinking that is quite annoying.’ Ryan thought, losing his patience toward the exiles’ cowardice for a brief instant.
Without any prior warning, Ryan’s immense SS-rank aura abruptly began to expand outward.
The pure pressure of his level crushed the wind across the training grounds, completely causing those in the very first row, including Kenia, to tremble uncontrollably and fall directly to their knees against the ground due to the brute force of his mana.
"Is this the sheer power of an A-rank? S-rank... exactly what is our King...?" murmured one of the elven guards currently on his knees, sweating cold.
"I have never felt anything like this in my entire life..." Irina’s grandfather whispered, resting both of his hands firmly upon his cane so as not to collapse. For the vast majority of those present in the village, it was incredibly difficult to even breathe beneath that suffocating weight.
Irina took a difficult step forward and grabbed Ryan by the sleeve of his clothing, tugging at the fabric and making him notice with her highly frightened gaze exactly what was happening to her people.
He blinked, fully realizing the damage being done, and instantly repressed his power, returning the oxygen back to the area.
He let out a heavy sigh, adjusting the collar of his clothes.
"Wow, I believe I let myself get carried away." Ryan said, staring intently at Irina for a brief second. "Now that you have all calmed down, I will continue."
"You must all know that we will not be doing this alone; we will count on the absolute help of other allies." Ryan clarified with total firmness.
Then several of the council elders, still sweating cold and trembling from the terrifying demonstration of power, approached him a little bit.
"Your Majesty, we deeply apologize for our earlier complaints..." the old elf said, swallowing hard. "But, what kind of allies will they be? We do not comprehend it; there is absolutely no nation that would ally itself with fugitives and exiles for something so incredibly massive."
Ryan did not bother giving any further explanations. Then he simply murmured in a low voice without even turning to look anywhere.
"You may come out now."
And almost in an instant, a spinning sphere of water formed out of completely nowhere right beside Ryan, making a loud liquid sound. A second later, the mass of water dispersed into a fine rain, giving distinct shape to Ivis’s silhouette, who planted herself right next to Ryan with her arms crossed.
"Wow, there are far more elves here than I originally thought." she commented, adopting a pose that showed a crystal-clear indifference and sheer superiority toward the kneeling masses.
The eyes of all the inhabitants opened completely wide upon feeling the newly arrived beast’s enormous magical pressure.
"Our direct ally will be the Demon Queen Ophelia." Ryan said with total certainty, dropping the heavy truth entirely upon them.
In that exact instant, a massive wave of shock exploded across the training grounds. The pure fear of directly seeing the water dragon Ivis standing right in their own village, combined completely with the massive impact of knowing they would have the Demon Queen herself on their side, left the exiles entirely in shock, utterly unable to process the terrifying level of the war they had just entered.