70 Chapter 70

The Helorin Kingdom…

The realm of the halflings was located on the east of the Drogthoran Empire. It had no other neighbors than this Empire that surrounded by land the nation but it was very close with the Holy Celestial Empire in the north.

The east of the Helorin Kingdom faces the grand ocean and it also has a great island in the south-east. Its borders had a natural barrier of high mountains that divided the halflings with the draphs of the Empire.

Only on the northwest was a path like a rift to enter the Helorin Kingdom through land or river that divides the north and the south of the kingdom.

Now this nation had three kinds of halflings, those who live in the north had blue-pale skin and were called Jodak. Those who live in the middle, coasts, and west had white skin and were called Wenser. Those who had dark skin were called Valkas and lived deep in the south. There were also the gnomes who made 25% of the population and lived in the north among Jodak halflings.

The Helorin Kingdom had a very good relationship with the other nations especially with the Drogthoran Empire, X'eryus Kingdom, and the Holy Celestial Empire. It also had a very good economy that can even rival that of the Holy Empire even though it was a very small nation.

Tonight there will be a meeting in the capital Eosira of the kingdom. The queen of the Helorin Kingdom, Isaris Gradrey Danster was sitting on her throne and was lost in thoughts. She was a one-meter tall Jodak halfling with blue eyes and short snow-white hair. She was also a warrior and preferred to wear her armor most of the time even at a time where there is no need to wear it.

"Sister, is something wrong?"

Another white-haired halfling in armor was there on her right side. He was her brother Prince Nezu.

"Is something wrong? Of course, there is something wrong! The nine leaders of the nine countries will gather here in my kingdom. Isn't that scary?"

"Well, I understand how you feel but it is more secure to gather in the Helorin Kingdom. The other nations have the Sorcerer Kingdom at their doorstep and it would be too risky if the Alliance gets discovered."

"I know that Nezu but it feels like the attention is all here at my kingdom. If I say something wrong I might doom this nation."

"Why did you accept to join the alliance then?"

"Are you stupid? Can't you understand something simple like that? You are a prince, damn it!"

Prince Nezu was speechless by the scolding he got from his big sister.

"If we would have refused to join the alliance, after the war, the other nations will be very cold with us or they might even declare war on us."

"I-I see the problem sister."

"Haaah…" she sighed from fatigue.

Isaris took the throne three years ago because her father got sick from a terrible illness that even magic was not able to cure. Since that day there was work every moment and it gave her a headache. Only the training with the sword gave her relaxation from all the tension and anxiety.

Now things were escalating worse for her with this Holy Alliance that she had no choice but to accept it. If everyone has raised swords against a common enemy, then she has to join with them.

A servant arrived inside the throne room. It was one of her knights. He bowed in front of his queen. "Your majesty, they are coming."

"Right, let's move then."

At the entrance of the palace showed up the armor of the Platinum Dragon Lord and Rigrit. It was a different silver armor because the one he used in the past was punched into oblivion by Kulshedra.

After him, showed up the Blue Sky Dragon Lord Suveria Myronsilk, the cardinals Raymond Zarg Lauransan, Berenice Nagua Santini, the Pontifex Maximus, Lakyus Alvein Dale Aindra, Captain Angelos Arianiti

The two Dragon Lords were representatives of the Argland Council State and the cardinals were representatives of the Slane Theocracy. They all arrived here via wild magic [World Teleportation] because that was the only way to reach this nation.

Every path that connects this continent with the other one was blocked by the undead forces that control the Kotorr Alps and the realm of the high elves.

"Tsaindorcus, how far is this Helorin Kingdom from our home?" asked Suveria.

"Very far away, we are at the end of this continent, Suveria. For humans, It would take months to reach it." Tsar glanced at the cardinals.

Reymond and the others were a bit surprised by the distance. They never had imagined discovering any nation this far and they were also interested to know more about the other nations of this continent.

"We are far away from home, huh. This place looks very beautiful and peaceful." said Lakyus. She looked at the palace and the city that was far behind her.

"Don't forget that we are in a nonhuman kingdom, Lakyus." spoke Angelos. Her priority was to protect the cardinals with her life. The plan was to take more members of the Black Scripture but the Platinum Dragon Lord was not able to take many people.

"I know captain but we all have a common enemy and we all have to work together."

"Trust no one, okay?"

"...Yeah."

She knows very well how the Slane Theocracy sees the other races so she has to be careful not to antagonize anyone.

From the stairs of the palace were arriving some new figures. The first group was from the Drogthoran Empire and it was led by a two-meter tall draph. He was very musculus and his black armor made him look like a total beast. The draph had the face of a barbarian that was ready for battle, his hair, and his eyes were brown and he also had two thick horns protruding on his left and right temples.

The one who was following him was a female draph that was very short, like 135cm. Her hair's color was red and very short. She also had horns and pointy ears that resembled those of goats or cows.

Following them were some warriors that were 215 cm tall wearing black armor and holding the flags of the Drogthoran Empire.

"What are these? Demons?"

Another group of individuals arrived. These ones looked just like the draphs but thinner. The one who was leading the group was a young zelf on a silver full-plate armor with short black hair, brown eyes, and black horns near his forehead.

"By the gods… these are demons!"

Lakyus couldn't tell the difference between these humanoids. One looked more demonized than the other. Lakyus approached Rigirt to ask her about the situation.

"Rigrit, are those creatures, demons? We are working with demons to destroy demons?"

"Lower your tone Lakyus, no one is a demon here. The bulky warrior over there is Emperor Izmir of the Drogthoran Empire. Their race is known as draph, you see their horns that look like those of goats, cows, and sheep. That's what they are."

"So they… are just humanoids?"

"Correct, and that person over there is Warrior King Malkor Dragobia of the X'eryus Kingdom. He and his people are zelves ."

"Zelves… that sounds like a different subspecies of the elven race."

"That's right, you see Lakyus, just because someone has horns does not mean that he is a demon.

"Forgive me…"

"Not all undead are evil..."

Those were the words of an old "friend" that she could never erase from her memories. But there was no turning back for her now. She has chosen the path of human domination and crushing the undead monsters. But that path is going to be full of blood and she knows that very well.

The power of the Sorcerer Kingdom that she had seen before she left her home country looked like it was impossible to be defeated. But this world has been in the past in a situation like this and the heroes of that time managed to triumph against evil. The heroes today can do it too. They will save this world from the invader Ainz Ooal Gown.

Now there were other groups arriving at the palace. The one from the Et'hem Republic was a wolfman with long grey hair, blue eyes, and was wearing a weird robe called yukata. Following him was an elegant black haired kitsune wearing an erotic kimono and she also had a bombastic bosom.

Lakyus had fixated her eyes on her. That kitsune was so beautiful that it would make a lot of females jealous and male to fall for her beauty.

"Ri-Rigrit, who are they?"

"Oh them, that one, the wolfman I mean, he is called Akira and it's the highest alpha of the Et'hem Republic. That fox female… I've seen her but I didn't learn her name."

Next were the queens of the Egrond Kingdom and the Lorestir Kingdom. The queen of Egrond was a beautiful blood elf with red hair braided to one side loosely and red eyes wearing leather armor. The queen of Lorestir was a moon elf with kinda sleepy eyes, pale white skin, and long straight blue hair.

Again Lakyus was fascinated by their beauty. Who would have thought that in this realm exist more nations with such rulers? She had thought Renner to be an unmatchable beauty but the angel the females proved her that this world was very big.

"Those are Queen Liluth Faekian of the Lorestir Kingdom and Queen Alyndra Errieth of the Egrond Kingdom."

"So- So many elf nations."

"Yeah, I too was surprised when I visited this realm for the first time. I thought there would be only demihuman nations but the humanoids dominate this continent."

Another group came to the entrance. One was a thin snow elf with long white hair, blue eyes, and clean white skin. He wore a fully jet-white body armor with a white cape on his back. The other one was a bulky minotaur with thick horns on both sides of his head. His fur was black so was his armor and he was holding on his back a silver double-ax.

"What about those two, Rigrit?"

"That snow elf is the Winter Emperor of the Mythen Iska Empire Vorrdar Bidrosh and the minotaur is the Warrior King of the Minotaur Kingdom Grakus."

"So many rulers gathering together for one purpose..."

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

Lakyus turned to see who that voice belonged and when she saw him, Lakyus and the representative of the Slane Theocracy dropped their jaws in sudden surprise. What appeared in front of everyone was a handsome young man with short blonde hair, blue eyes, and clad in blue plate full body armor.

Just by his presence, everyone who was human can tell that this man was someone of great power. For Lakyus it felt like he was one of those knights of the heroic sagas that Evileye had once described her.

"Human in the middle of nonhumans…"

The more her horizon opens, the more strange and surprising it gets. This young man was a perfect human breed that fits to rule over his realm. Lakyus couldn't think of a way to speak with this man. Following him was a young girl with long blonde hair wearing a priestess gown and holding a staff that had the symbol in the shape of a cross.

The Cardinal Reymond was confused for the reason how this girl that looks no more than 14-15 years old to be a high priestess. Her robe in some way was similar to the robes of the cardinals but still, she looked like a higher human being than the cardinals. There was another person following behind the Emperor. She was a dark-skinned girl with long white hair and wore a dress armor.

"Ri-Rigrit what about them? They are humans, who are they?"

"Calm Lakyus, you sound like a villager visiting a city for the first time. You don't want them to look down on us do you?"

"Ye-Yes, I'm sorry. It's just… seeing humans like us this far is unimaginable. With all these powerful nations around, it makes the Slane Theocracy look like a joke."

"Well, these last years the Slane Theocracy truly is a joke. But anyway, that young man is called Ajax Norx d'Armadus, he is the Holy Emperor of the Holy Celestial Empire. And the young girl is called Aurora, the High Priestess of the Empire."

"They look so amazing."

Ajax noticed the humans from the other continent and advanced towards them. The cardinals stepped forward to greet him.

"Greetings, I believe you are the cardinals of the Slane Theocracy, right?"

"I am Pontifex Maximus, the head of state of the Slane Theocracy."

"I am Raymond Zarg Lauransan, the Cardinal of Earth."

"I am Berenice Nagua Santini, the Cardinal of Fire."

The cardinals proudly introduced themselves before the Emperor. Not going to lie... they kinda felt excited and proud to have a great empire ruled by a human in another part of the world they did not know that existed.

"Great to meet you, I am the Emperor of the Holy Celestial Empire, Ajax Norx d'Armadus. This little girl by my side is the High Priestess Aurora Micah Theliel."

Aurora nodded her head but she was not happy with the way how Ajax introduced her. It made her feel like she came to this place for a visit with her father.

"It's a great feeling to meet humans from such distant lands, your Majesty. I always thought we were surrounded by man-eating demihumans all the time but now... it feels good to be wrong." Reymond expressed himself with little emotions.

"It truly feels different. Actually, we have some information about an old human nation called the Slane Theocracy. I was surprised when I heard the name of your country again."

"Oh, how… how is it possible that the Holy Empire know about us."

Curiosity captured the members of the Slane Theocracy. It was a very large distance to a point of not knowing what lies beyond one or two nations.

"About that… You may hate me for what I'm about to say but I'm actually a descend of one of the Eight Kings."

At the area where Ajax's group and Reimond's group was standing there a moment of silence. Only the chattering of the other nations was beings heard but from these two groups… nothing.

"Eight Kings...? You mean the Eight Greed Kings?"

"You may say that but one of them, King Byzant is the founder of the Holy Celestial Empire and my ancestor. I know they have done a lot of damage to the world but now our Empire is not like the old one. Our intentions are always peaceful."

What should they say? The descent of the beings that have slain their god was right in front of them. But should they be angry at this young man for what his ancestor has caused?

"Well… Our nation still hates them, but blaming you for what they did would be very foolish from our side. Right now, our nation is in a very depressing situation, so us working together would be more beneficial then remembering the past." said Pontifex Maximus

"That's exactly what I want. Leaving the bitter past behind and going forward for a great peaceful future."

"He is so amazing just like Momon…"

Lakyus had completely fallen by his charm. This young man should have the title of the Holy Emperor of Mankind.

"His majesty must be very strong. I hope for him to be the one to slay that monster."

Suddenly everyone felt a powerful wind coming out of nowhere. It raised everyone's hair and robes. Tsar knew what was coming. This kind of sudden storm can only be caused by one of his kind.

"What is happening?" spoke Ajax.

"It's her." said Queen Alyndra.

"Who?"

"The Dark Empress."

Everyone right now was in an uneasy situation. The dangerous dark elf has decided to get out of her castle and come here. How should they face? No one had an idea. They will take action only if the Empress decided to attack them.

"Emperor Ajax, who is coming. Why is everyone looking like they are ready for an assault?"

"It's the…"

There was no time to finish his words because in the middle of the entrance where nobody was standing landed a red giant dragon-like snake that had no legs and after that, another creature almost covered in fire landed near the dragon. These two monsters were called Amphiptere and Phoenix.

The rulers of the other nations were surrounded in protection by their loyal knights. Most of them had never seen her face before so they did not know what kind of female was about to come down from that Amphiptere and that Phoenix.

The Amphiptere moved his tail towards the people to act as stairs for his Empress. From the back of the Phoenix jumped four female dark elf warriors. They had two swords on their back and were equipped with black armor. Their belly was exposed, that's why they looked very sexy.

"Ara ara~ it seems like I am the last one."

Walking down the tail of the Amphiptere was a dark elf female with short white hair and blue eyes wearing a black dress that exposed much of her dark skin. She was ultimately beautiful. The moon elf and blood elf queens were beautiful too, but the dark empress suppressed them by far. Following her was another dark elf female with blue hair and golden eyes wearing a full plate black armor with golden markings.

"Rigrit... who is this woman?" asked Lakyus.

"She is the Dark Empress of the Underdark Empire Dragomira Eidrith Azamus."

"Is she evil or something? Why is everyone in such an alarming situation because of her presence?"

"I don't really know but I heard that she has caused a lot of troubles."

Lakyus forgot that this is a new land with new empires and kingdoms. But that does not mean that all of them will be good nations. As an old phrase says "There are no forests without wild boars." So, of course, this continent has a cruel ruler like her continent that has the Sorcerer King.

"What with this female? She's so powerful."

Even Tsar that was the strongest here was surprised by the hidden power of the Dark Empress. He knew that someone like her existed long ago but he never got to know if she was powerful because his eyes were mostly on his own continent.

"Oh my, so many faces here. Hello everyone, how are you doing? The southeast has some warm climate don't you think, Esma?"

"It is as you say, Your Majesty."

She was irritating everyone around her. It sounded like she owns this land and has come here for holidays with her friends. All of them had their weapons ready for any danger that might come from the Dark Empress.

"Hmmm~ Isn't anybody gonna say anything? I don't owe you any money, fufufu~"

All the rulers were throwing a stare at one another but no one was deciding to say a word until a halfling showed up at the entrance.

" We- Welcome to the Helorin Kingdom great rulers."

Everyone turned their eyes at the little humanoid. It was the brother of the queen, Prince Nezu with some knights that broke the ice.

"I am Prince Nezu Gradrey Danster of the Kingdom. We wanted to make a welcoming ceremony but…"

"There is no need for that young prince. We don't have time for such things." interrupted Tsar.

"Ri-Right, pl-please follow me."

The knights lined up and the rulers walked towards the entrance of the palace. Surprisingly, the Royal Palace was big enough to fit a dragon lord like Suveria. I mean, why would creatures like halflings build a palace this high when they are so short?

But the thing is that the architects were humans from the Holy Empire. Those wise humans were paid by the halfling king to design his palace. So they made it like the palaces of the Holy Empire.

After passing some hallways and stairs, they finally reached the room known as the conference chamber. It was very wide and high and it had a big round table in the middle. Around the table were the chairs for all the rulers and there was one that was a throne and it belonged to the queen.

The young queen Isaris was standing on her throne and waited for all the rulers to take a seat around the table. Now all of them had their attention at her, except Dragomira who was looking around for her own interest.

"What's with those eyes?! You haven't come here for me!" She was absolutely anxious. The only person that was close to her was Nezu, but even his presence was not helping her to act as an iron queen. "Here I go…"

"Welcome everyone, I am Queen Isaris Gradrey Danster of the Helorin Kingdom. I hope you all are feeling well and having a… good time."

"I don't feel well and I'm not having a good time."

All eyes turned at the Dark Empress. Those words should not be said at other ones home but at the end of the day, she was... the Dark Empress.

"Eh, what's wrong?" asked Isaris, nervously.

"Well you have all these rulers here at your home but you don't treat us with some drinks. That's such a poor welcoming, am I right?"

The female dark elf warriors proudly nodded in agreement

"OH NOOOOOOO, I completely forgot about the drinks!"

"Ah yes, the drinks… um, forgive me, rulers. I thought of this as a very, very, very important session and I didn't have my attention on that so again, forgive me. The maids will prepare them immediately."

The doors got opened by the knights and the halflings maids arrived to serve them the drinks.

"Queen Isaris, there is no need to trouble yourself." said Ajax.

"No Emperor Ajax, it was my mistake on my part, so, please enjoy. Now to the main subject, as the one who has come to all of us for a very important cause, I allow you Platinum Dragon Lord Tsaindoruks Vaision to speak."

Isaris wanted to go to this part quickly so she won't be needed to speak anymore. The drink part really gave her a lot of bad thoughts.

The rulers heard the queen and turned their eyes at Tsar. He raised from his chair and started to explain.

"Yes, I am the Platinum Dragon Lord Tsaindoruks Vaision who sent the messengers to your domain. Now, all of you know that our world in these 600 years has gone through a lot of times of turmoil. One time is at peace... one time is at war. I've seen kings and emperors rise to power and die, some were good, some were twisted. History just repeats itself. And now, a new tyrant has risen to power, like the Eight Greed Kings, the Sorcerer King Ainz Ooal Gown desires to conquer this world.

They have heard about this name when the High Queen Alea announced her marriage and a second time when the messenger of the Dragon Lord arrived at their domain. Someone that will make a Dragon Lord call for an alliance, it was a piece of very terrible news.

"So what actually is this guy?" asked the draph Emperor Izmir.

"What do you know about the undead Emperor Ismir?"

"...Nothing."

"That's right because your people have never encountered such creatures. Undeads are monsters that prey on the living beings like all of you here. There are undead that are mindless and attack everything that moves, and there are intelligent undeads too that can surpass all of us. It doesn't change much, their only purpose is to kill living beings."

The rulers looked at each other with a worried expression. Such creatures have passed the Kotorr Alps and have conquered the high elves.

"Well, that's terrible. Emperor Ajax, you have them at your doorstep, how is the situation?"

"It's normal as always, but we are on great alert. My knights have seen them patrolling the border."

"We have seen them too near with our border." spoke Queen Liluth Faekian of the Lorestir Kingdom. "They always ride on groups, sometimes there are 50 warriors, sometimes 100 or even more."

"Even their mounts are dangerous. They are called Soul Eaters and can cast long-range attack skills. The more souls they consume the stronger they grow." said Raymond.

"Even their mounts?! But… I mean a horse can be dangerous on a charge but something like that would be devastating on a battlefield. The soldiers would just fall like puppets when a charge occurs." said King Malkor worried.

"Well, simply soldiers would not do a thing to them, but our champions have chances to defeat them easily, but the Soul Eaters are just a part of the Nazarick's army. There are Death Knights, Death Warriors, Elder Litche's, Undead Dragons, Vampires, Demons, and many other vile undead monsters." said the Cardinal.

This made the rulers concerned. How can they win against such creatures when even their mounts can cause a horrible massacre?

"So you are telling us that our chances are zero?"

"No... we will split our army of dragons." spoke the Blue Sky Dragon Lord. "We have gathered three thousand dragons. We will send one thousand of them to help your armies. Fire and holy magic is a weak point for the undead and a dragon's fire-breath is more powerful than a normal fire."

The expression of the rulers changed for good. Dragons are mighty beings that possess great strength. Heaving them aiding their armies would be very effective. And another thing they discovered is that undead are weak against fire and holy magic, so they need a great army of magic casters and priests

"That's a relief." said Izmir.

"I want to ask something." they turned their eyes at the Winter Emperor of the Mythen Iska Empire Vorrdar Bidrosh. "If undead beings are naturally evil, why did the High Queen Alea marry the Sorcerer King? I am asking this because Alea was such a merciful Queen… a pure soul should I say. So she marrying such a horrible creature that loves and enjoy death makes no sense."

"I heard from Sirius that Alea was very depressed and wanted to get married but none of the nobles were perfect and even they were not interested in marrying with her." said Queen Alyndra Errieth of the Egrond Kingdom.

"That's… very bad… Wait, wait, that still doesn't sense, Queen Alyndra. We are talking about a High Elf Queen of the Sun here and a… Does anyone know how the Sorcerer King looks like?"

"He-He is actually a skeleton." Lakyus decided to speak. She should not do that but no one of them seemed to mind that.

"A skeleton, huh? I mean… no that still doesn't make any sense."

The rulers had fallen on confusion. They asked themselves how true love does works with an undead skeleton that loves to murder people. His empire and the Elvenor Kingdom have always been in a good relationship that's why Vorrdar was worried about the High Queen.

"I too tried to find the reason why she married him too but I got nothing. I wanted her as my wife but she chooses someone else. I guess we should say that she really wanted to get… boned, fufufu!" Dragomira smirked.

Still deep inside her heart, Dragomira was still angry about the reason that the Sorcerer King took her trophy. She was very arrogant and wanted to play war games with weaklings but her aspiration got blocked by the undead.

"Don't talk like you know her."

Dragomira turned her eyes in annoyance at the Emperor of the Holy Empire.

"Ara~ and what do you know, boy?"

"I don't know the reason either but that undead must have done something to her."

"What do you mean Emperor Ajax?" asked Vorrdar.

"Ainz Ooal Gown isn't called the Sorcerer King for nothing, right? So he might have cast some kind of black magic on the High Queen to control her mind and body."

"That might be the truth, as expected of Emperor Ajax."

The Cardinals of the Slane Theocracy felt proud of the Emperor, a human being praised by strong non-humans, and standing against the Dark Empress's arrogance was a plus for humanity

"Everyone, we should focus on a battle plan right now." It was the Minotaur King Grakus that spoke. The rulers were a bit surprised at his voice. Such powerful looking minotaur had the voice of a scholar.

"King Grakus is right, as I said a moment ago, we will send one thousand dragons to aid your armies. The Sorcerer King has opened a tunnel on the Kotorr Alps to connect our continent with yours."

"Yeah, I have heard that and it's very near to the Underdark Empire. There is also a village of high elves there called O'valian. So we are going to use that tunnel to pass on the other side?"

"Yes Dark Empress, that tunnel is very important. We can use it to our advantage and even if things turn out bad, we can destroy that tunnel and crush the undead forces inside the tunnel. The armies must pass on the territories of the Underdark Empire, does that troubles you, Empress Dragomira?"

"Not really, if that is the best way, then so be it. But hear this well, when all this is over, Alea is mine and that means all Elvenor will be a province of the Underdark Empire."

"That's not up to you to decide that." opposed the Holy Emperor.

"You are raising your voice at me a bit too much, boy. Do that again and see what happens."

For the first time after so many years, Ajax felt fear. The killing intent of this dark elf was terrifying that was able to scare the other rulers in the room. She truly was a freak of nature. Meanwhile, the Queen of Helorin Kingdom was trying to keep the face of a ruler but she was still shivering by the sudden killing intent.

"If we have such rivalry, the alliance will not last long. Alea might be grateful to Dragomira for freeing her from the Sorcerer King."

"Ara~ that's very kind of you Akira. See boy, I am the one who is correct here."

She angered him so much, but the alliance was very important. He made a promise to save Alea but this dark elf getting on his way was trouble. The Holy Maiden will not fight her for a cause like that.

"Please we must work together and leave the old rivalry behind. There is an undead monster on the other side that wants to conquer all of you. We in this room are the only light in the dark, we are the only warriors that can protect this world from evil."Tsar tried to give them courage.

All the rulers had an expression on their faces that told Tsar that they have accepted and were ready for war. A document was passed for them to put their signature.

"Very good then. The dragon army will prepare to fly towards the battlefield and I wish you great luck. We are going to save our world and make history, my brothers and sisters. For the Holy Alliance!"

"For the Holy Alliance!"