[???]
Apparently the group then crashed straight towards the royal throne room of the demon king, at the exact moment when the entitled demon king himself were discussing on how to deal with the dragon that was flying inside their territory. In side the room was the demon king himself, his daughter which is a demon too, an archdemon servant, this world's vampire queen, a humanoid dragon, a beast man, an insectoid, the succubus queen, and the undead King.
With such powerful line up anyone would immediately recognize that this was a grand meeting held occasionally by the demon king towards its subjects. Surprisingly there was a dragon among them and a beast man who was staring dagger towards them.
Since it is widely known that the beast man nation is allied against the demons, this beast man in front of them must be some kind of a traitorous person. Plus one of the feared species the dragon was actually present, meaning this could be taken in as the dragons being allied with the demons themselves. All in all this just complicates the situation of this world
Just from this line up alone, it would literally shocked the whole world causing internal disputes within the allied forces. Originally such plot reveal was for this worlds protagonists group or class, however due to Argos and co. sudden intervention the plot reveal was learned prematurely.
Nevertheless this was little significance towards Argos and the others, but the same couldn't be said towards Elfrune. As a native to this world, such reveal naturally shocked her greatly. Even thought the betrayal of a certain beast man shocked her, the joint forces of the demon and the dragon was even more of a nightmare for her.
Everyone in the world wished that the dragons wouldn't ally themselves with the demons due to their capability towards destructions, but upon seeing both such creatures present, such nightmare became a reality which caused Elfrune to despair on the spot upon landing off Argos back.
Plus since the one's present here are the strongest or chosen elites of their respective kinds, everyone present naturally exudes immense pressure worthy of their own title and ally towards the demon king. However as if undeterred by those powerful aura Aileen, Fengris, and Belial released their hold up aura for about the minimum as their mana pushed back the pressuring force and protect everyone around them.
Seeing their precise control of their mana, the demon king couldn't help but be amused by such performance as he observed carefully the newly arrived guest. As if that wasn't enough, Argos morphed back into his humanoid form and blended his own mana into the mana of Aileen and the others.
Amazed that there is another dragon present, the demon king clapped his hands in delight of his own majesty while looking towards his new guest. On the other hand the sole dragon in the room looked warily towards Argos as he bore hostility to a person who is the same kind as him.
In that moment as if to break the ice, the demon king then raised his subjects from the ground as he welcomed his visitors.
"Welcome visitors! Welcome to my castle! Seeing that non of you are human, then i presume your hear to have my audience?" asked by the demon king, clearly wary of the species called humans
"Exactly! but what kind of welcoming was that?" asked by Aileen with an informal tone which shocked everyone in the room
"... What do you mean?"
"I meant the opening attack that your people had launched towards us"
Immediately recognizing what she meant, the demon king then napped his fingers as he said.
"Oh that? that was some kind of a defensive maneuver in case a hostile force such as the humans arrives in my territory"
"Hah?!?! even a goblin could understand that a dragon was flying in the air just by its form alone, are you telling me that your people are blind?"
Upon hearing her tone, the archdemon butler quickly cuts in as he raised his voice.
"How dare you raise your tone in the presence of the king?"
Upon hearing the archdemon's words, Aileen simply glared back at the archdemon as she tried to hold herself back from squashing the insect. But before the situation could escalate into a brawl, the mon king abruptly stopped the archdemon servant with one hand as he replied.
"I'm truly sorry about that! You've got to understand, humans have a class which is called a tamer and summoner... meaning they could easily control a dragon using those classes... thus you couldn't help if we become wary towards a dragon in the sky in our circumstances... After we are currently at war, thus we cant let our guard down... but seeing that non of you are humans, then i greatly apologize for the inconvenience, why don't we start over with an introduction?"
With the demon king's suggestion, Aileen and the rest simply stayed silent as an awkward silence enveloped the whole area. In that moment the demon king then spoke first.
"Kuhum!!! Well then I'll go first, I'm the demon King of this world... i have no proper name, you can just call me the demon king as it is"
Even thought his subjects were shocked that the demon king introduced himself first, those things were unnecessary top people who seek him.
"... Well I'm Aileen! The Queen of the Vampires!"
Upon stating her title, the queen of vampire in this world was shocked by this information as everyone in the room then looked over towards her direction and begun to discern whether it is possible to have two vampire queens in one era. However the first one who rejects such theory was the vampire queen of this world herself.
"Lies!!! You cant be the vampire queen! I'm the vampire queen! there cant be two vampire queen's in one era! Its simply impossible"
Hearing her words, even Aileen nodded in agreement as such event cant happen at all. Just like this world, her original world only recognize one queen per era, thus she understand fully this worlds vampire queen's worry. However the same couldn't be said towards the people whop are in the dark.
"Are you telling us that one of you are lying about their title?" asked by the undead king
"Why are you assuming that I'm lying! I'm the real vampire queen, not this bitch!" defended by the vampire queen
"But that woman also declares that she's a queen... meaning there is one among you is the impostor" said by the beast man as he snarled in delight from this chaos
"I'm telling you! I'm the real one!" insisted by the vampire queen
"I believe our vampire queen is the real one, and that woman called Aileen is the fake! i mean how could a royal blood spoke so brazenly" said by the archdemon
"You've got a point, but aren't you simply basing your decision because you hated the guts of that woman? there shouldn't be any bias towards such decision young demon!" said by the Insectoid in a size of a juggernaut with an armor of a horned beetle
As the commotion grow larger, the demon king then raised his hands to silence everyone as he asked the groups objective.
"Well putting the title aside, i would like to ask why are you here? I presume you have a goal in mind seeing that you've brought an elf, a demon, a dragon, and a beast man for yourself"
"Actually we do! we would like to have access to the mana core of the world tree that is parked behind your castle"
Upon hearing her words, another commotion arise as everyone in the room bore a grim expression. Naturally the demon King himself wore such expression as he begun to slowly grow hostile towards his own guest.
For the demons, the world tree itself is their natural sole provider of power which literally give them an edge against the allied forces of this world. Without such existence, the demons itself wouldn't even stand a chance against the joint forces of the world. The world tree is also one of the reasons why some people defect from the allied forces and joined the demon ranks.
According to this world speculation, the world tree symbolizes the life of this world and the sole provider of mana in this world dependent on such sources. Since that was the case, any species who owned or lived near the world tree would naturally be a force to reckon with. One can even transcend their existence just by merely living near the tree for a couple of years. Thus the tree itself is very much coveted by the natives of the world.
The fact that Aileen requested for the world tree's mana core was already highly suspicious in their regards. A group of strangers that came from nowhere suddenly asking such request is highly likely to have an ulterior motive behind such intent.
Plus since this world doesn't know the existence of other worlds similar in nature to them, they would naturally suspect Aileen's group to be a hired forces from the allied force with the mission to destroy the source of power of the demons. With that in mind, hostility were naturally not out of place in this room.
Each powerful individual present in this room are promised strength and power from the world tree in exchange for their aid in the war and defending the demon kingdom. With that they would naturally helped in defending the tree to any highly suspected individuals.
"I see... so that was what you were after all along... ahaha... hahahaha... hahahahahaha!!!You weren't here for allegiance nor aid for my kingdom, you were simply here to target our source of strength... Just how low can the allied force go?"
Hearing the utter of the demon king, Aileen couldn't help but to be confused as she doesn't even know what the the term allied force is. As far as they're concerned, none of them belong to such group. However despite that the hostility that the natives of this world directed towards them, weren't budging a bit the moment she muttered the world tree. In fact it had just grown stronger the moment she said her groups motives.
"Unfortunately the world tree or its core is an important asset for the survival of my kingdom... I just cant simply just hand it over to you... In fact how can i be sure that you weren't sent by the allied force? As far as i know, they would do anything just to get the victory in this war... meaning any suspicious people that enters my territory are highly suspected by my allies as the enemies"
"....."
"You offer not allegiance nor servitude... there isn't even any benefit for me... so why would i just lend you the mana core of our world tree?"
Hearing the demon king's question, Aileen then realized that the talked went downhill just as fast as they arrived, as they will have no choice but to force their way in.
"So does this mean your not allowing our request?" asked by Aileen
"... This talk is over, you are not welcomed in my presence any longer... get rid of them"
The moment the demon king uttered those words, the beastman that had defected to his side then begun baring his teeth as he targeted Aileen who had long disrespected their king through her behavior and attitude.
"I've been waiting for this!!! Now i can go all out!!!"
Launching himself off the ground, the beastman then infused his mana unto his claws to quickly sharpened them in razor like blade as he aimed towards Aileen's throat. Just like any beast, he himself targeted the throat of his prey with an intent to snap it clean dead. Just by going to his speed alone from the moment he launched, his charge only took about about 0.5 seconds before he finally arrived near Aileen in a blink of an eye.
However before his claws made its way towards their target, Fengris suddenly snatched his hand in midair with incredible speed and threw him to a quite distance away from Aileen. At the same time, Fengris felt a presence on his left as he quickly shifted his sight towards such direction and saw the insectoid twice his size raising up its halberd, as it prepares to swing it down in full force.
In response to that Fengris engulfed his right fist with a thick mana barrier using his black mana and struck hard at the halberd causing the insectoid to be blown away from the collision of fist and weapon.
"Insolence"
Near the throne from where the demon king sat, the servant archdemon then used his own demonic flame magic to gather on his right palm as he sent a torrent of demonic fire wave towards Aileen with the intent to burn her calm face to cinders. But before such flames could even touch her, Belial suddenly intervened in between as he raised up his own demonic black mana and gathered it into his left hand, and used it to neutralize the flame with his own wave attack.
But the moment he did such a thing, his body suddenly reacted towards danger as he blocked the incoming attack from his left as he saw a skeleton soldier wielding a sword, swung down its weapon towards him. Based on the skill alone, the undead king seemed to have summoned his soldier to fight against Belial in his stead.
However such skeleton soldier posed no threat to him, In just a single swing of his fist, Belial easily destroyed the skeleton soldiers as he glared back at the undead King.
On the other hand once the demon king's forces saw the groups quick action and retaliation, they were naturally shocked at first as this was the first time a group had actually fought back against them on equal ground. No trickery nor tactics whatsoever. Just by this slight exchange, they somehow got the gist of each other's strength.
"They're actually quite good! This is fun! this is really fun!!!" said by the beastman
"That guy who held the same species as you seemed to wield immense strength... be careful" said by the insectoid
"Shut up! his my target! do not interfere!" retorted by the beastman
"You! just who are you? why do you fight against your own kind?" asked by the archdemon servant as he pointed his fingers towards Belial
"Indeed! I thought all demons are in the same page, looks like i was mistaken" commented by the undead king
"Why do you fight us? Why did you betray your king? answer me?" demanded by the demon princess
In response to the princess question, Belial simply stood respectfully and acted just like how he act to his current king in his own world.
"I just have one answer my fair demonic princess!... He is not my king! and you are not my princess" said by Belial while slowly opening his eyes and showcased his black eyes which symbolizes nothingness and darkness
Naturally this creeped out the demon princess for a bit, but since she doesn't know the meaning of such eyes, she naturally shook off her feeling as she too showed her hostility. After all declaring that her father wasn't that strange demon's king and she was not his race princess was tantamount to slander towards royalty. And any slander directed towards them was tantamount to death.
With the other side getting ready to attack them at any moment, Aileen then secretly cracked her knuckles as she gave out the basic order for everyone in the group. With everything that is going now, Aileen herself now pose as the acting leader for all. After all Argos is tired from his long flight, Belial is not keen on planning at all but only moves according to his instincts, and as for Fengris, intelligence isn't really much his forte.
"You! Elf! whatever your name is!" called out by Aileen
"My name is Elfrune!" responded by Elfrune
"Whatever! You can trace the whereabouts of the world tree's mana core just by following the trail of mana in the air right?" asked by Aileen
"...Um yes! us elf are quite sensitive to mana, so we actually can trace them to their origin" answered by Elfrune
"That's great! I want you to head over straight to the mana core of the world tree and begin preparing for the world jump spell that will bring us to another plain, after that, you would be free to return back to your kingdom through an instant teleportation from the artifact that was handed down to you by the queen of the elves" said by Aileen
"How did you!?!?" asked by Elfrune as she was shocked that Aileen knew such a thing, but the only response she received was a smirk from her
"Argos! you will have to follow after Elfrune and protect her from any intervention coming her way... Belial, Fengris, and i will have to do everything we can to hold all of them here... Once the spell is done, quickly send back a signal for us, in order to quickly rendezvous towards you guys"
Hearing Aileen's orders, everyone then understood her intention as they all simply nodded in accordance to her plan. But now that they were given a simple task, they have now a certain goal in mind wherein they will be able to put their whole focus unto.
Without a moments delay, all of them then begun to move as Argos quickly picked up Elfrune under his arm as he partially opened up his dragon wings and flew towards the hall of the demon castle.
The moment Argos and Elfrune started to move, the elite units of the demon king naturally started to intervene as the sole dragonkin inside the room shot off his place and planned to catch up towards the escaping enemy. But before he could even reach the door from which Argos and Elfrune had left, Aileen then suddenly cuts in between and quickly sneaked in a wide punch which forced the dragonkin to suddenly cross his arm to block the attack.
However the force of the punch wasn't simple at all, the moment Aileen's fist collided unto the dragonkin's skin, a huge force suddenly rushed up towards him, which literally blew him away for a couple of feet away from the door. Once he got blown away, Aileen naturally intended to quickly follow up her attack as she quickly closes in the distance in between them in a single step.
But before she could even get close to the dragonkin, the vampire queen of this world then quickly cuts in as she bared out her red claws and swipe out her sharp nails towards Aileen's throat. Due to that Aileen quickly pulled her head backwards as she bent her back into limbo in order to dodge that sudden interference of the vampire queen, before she quickly raises up her left leg and counter the attack with a quick kick towards the vampire queen.
She wasn't quite sure but for some reason the vampire queen of this world is somewhat hostile towards her due to the fact that they both held the same title. The same could also be said to the dragonkin that she cuts in, due to him being fully focused towards Argos. But since she needed to hold them back, she then had no further reason to show sympathy towards the people who plans to intervene their plans.
Unknowingly before her kick could land on her target, the dragonkin surprisingly blocked her kick as he quickly grabbed her ankle and plans to throw her from quite a distance away. But the moment he took ahold of her ankle, Aileen then suddenly used this opportunity to discern him as her anchor in order to enact a sudden unexpected attack from an unknown angle.
By temporarily dislocating the bones on her ankle, she then spun around in the air which literally ripped her skin from the ankle that the dragonkin held and did a kick aiming towards his collarbone. Since the collarbone is somewhere around a critical part of any creatures, coupled with the force from each of Aileen's attack, the dragonkin naturally gasped for air as he arched in pain from having his collarbone being hit.
Once the dragonkin lets go on her ankle, she quickly then regenerated her broken ankle and skin as she reconnected her dislocated bones in a single breath. After that she then forced the dragon kin to kneel on the ground by the force of her hand, as she delivered numerous punch towards him in a single breath, before sending him away with a straight kick to the face.
Once the dragonkin got blown away, the Vampire queen suddenly sneaked in from behind as she sent out her own blood magic towards Aileen herself.
"Blood claws!!!"
In response to that, Aileen quickly dodged the attack using her own speed as she quickly closed in the distance between them in a single second. For that moment the vampire queen of this world was quite surprised by the speed that Aileen had showed , to the point that she was even late to utter out a defensive barrier in between them.
Before she could even speak out a single word, Aileen suddenly snatched her throat in a lightning speed and slammed down her head against the ground, causing her to gasp out in blood.
For Aileen no matter what, she couldn't let anyone just pass by her. No matter who they are, as long as she wills it, no one can pass her that easily.