Island Felina, Awakener’s Association Headquarters.

Ten Minutes Before Raika attacked Rio.

"What did you say? Demons are on the move!? How many are there?"

Walking through a corridor leading to the elevator of the Association building, Ryul, the elf king, talked loudly on his phone, causing Ashtel and Riku, who were standing beside him, to stop talking and focus on his call too.

"What did you say? Say it again? How many?"

As Ryul asked that question in a trembling voice, the answer that came from the other end of the phone made all three of the SS-rankers go silent from shock.

"The entire demon army has started marching out of the demon continent! It’s an all-out world war!!"

Hearing these words, Ryul felt like his legs had become a bit unsteady, and he almost tripped on his feet.

"Wha... Y-you’ve got to be kidding me right!? Come on man! This isn’t the type of thing you should be joking about! We are talking about a world war against the entire world alliance here!..."

"The demon race isn’t stupid enough to do something like that on a whim... this just can’t be-"

Hearing Ryul deny reality, the person on the other end of the call immediately replied with a firm voice of confidence and threw the harsh truth that forced Ryul to come back to his senses.

"Sir, I know the consequences of joking about things like this! In the name of the great world tree! I swear on my life that what I am saying is absolutely true!"

"The demon army has divided itself in many smaller battalions and is heading for all nearby nations!"

"As the nation closest to the demon continent, demons would be reaching the southern shore of the elven empire in just a few minutes!"

At those words, Ryul was speechless.

He could not find words to convey his emotions as he felt confused, shocked, scared, and anxious all at the same time!

For the past thousand years, the demons have only made small-scale moves and at most, they have only sent a few battalions outside the demon continent to wreak havoc.

This is the first time in a thousand years that the entire demon army has suddenly been mobilized and has been ordered to start a massive-scale war with the entire world alliance!

"H-how can this be?... th-this... this is impossible..."

Even Riku, who happened to overhear the call, started denying reality, as he knew full well what the consequences of an all-out world war would be!

The last time a war like that happened, almost 90 percent of the beastfolk race was eradicated from the face of the world!

Just the thought of something like that happening again was enough to give nightmares to even the strongest people in the world.

"Come back to your sense you two! You are sovereigns of your respective nations!"

"This is not the time to be cowards and lose your courage!"

Ashtel’s calm voice rang out in the empty corridor as he tried his best to snap the two fellows out of their despair-filled imaginations.

"The demon race did something similar when the Prince Alverto summoned that strange tower and tried to destroy the world..."

"They sent hundreds of thousands of demons to distract everyone from their real goal, and if not for the fact that they hadn’t sent out any SS-rankers, even that situation could have been considered a world war!"

"The demons likely haven’t sent out their SS-rankers..."

Ashtel’s eyes became firm as he gave out his orders.

"Ryul, you go back to the elven empire and stabilize the situation there; Riku, you need to stabilize the beast archipelago..."

"As for me... I will go and have a chat with that sh*tty bast*rd of a demon king and beat some sense into him..."

"By the time I am done with him, he would have no other choice but to make his army retreat!"

Ashtel rolled his sleeves as a ferocious look appeared on his face.

Ashtel had been angry at the demon king for a long time actually.

In the past, the demon king tried to help Neo, and in recent times, he also seemed to have supported Alverto with his demon army to distract everyone, even if slightly.

Also the demon king was targeting Rio just a few days ago!

Targeting him or any other SS-rankers was still something that Ashtel could barely allow, but targeting a child that had nothing to do with the chaotic conflicts of the various races, that was not something Ashtel could allow.

Ashtel did not like sitting still and passively waiting for the enemy to attack before doing counterattacks; he was the type of person to actively hunt down people that dared target him or those who he cared about.

Rio was someone Ashtel wanted to grow up and support, and after finding that the demon king was targeting him, Ashtel was definitely not going to sit still and wait passively.

If not for this urgent secret meeting, Ashtel would have already rushed to the demon king’s palace to confront the other party head-on to make sure that the other party would never dare to target Rio again.

It may seem that he was being too overprotective of Rio in others’ eyes, but Ashtel did not dare gamble on the safety of those close to him.

"O-okay... I-I would go back to the elven empire and see what’s going on... If you need my help over there, just send me a message through telepathy and I will be there..."

Riku also nodded his head at those words.

"I should also go-"

Before Riku could complete his sentence, a mysterious fluctuation spread out in the beast archipelago.

Although it was very weak for anyone below rank SS to notice, to Ashtel and the other two it was easy to catch.

"Rio and the others... their presence disappeared just now!"

An SS-ranker’s perception range is massive, and obviously all three of them knew that Rio and the others were enjoying vacation on Island Ptichka.

The moment the group’s presence disappeared from their perception range, all three of them noticed it!

"Miki is still there! But the others have disappeared! Are the demons already here!?"

A look of shock appeared on Riku’s face after sensing this strange situation.

Although Miki was still there, which was a relief, the rest of the group was gone almost instantly, and even SS-rankers like them couldn’t sense what had happened!

"We should go and check out what happened-"

Just as Ashtel and the other two were about to head towards Rio and the other’s location, a calm voice made all three of them stop in their tracks.

"Nobody is going anywhere..."

At some point a tall creature with four arms had appeared in the corridor without the three SS-rankers noticing, and the creature smirked at Ashtel before saying.

The moment that creature appeared in the corridor, the originally tense atmosphere became even more overwhelming.

As if the world itself had started to bleed, the very fabric of space-time started to fracture as dense miasmic filth flooded the underground corridor.

The creature looked at Ashtel with a creepy smile on its face as it spoke in a very eerie voice that could make the listener uncomfortable to the core.

"We meet again, Ashtel Rex..."

Hearing those words, Ashtel clenched his fists as he stepped forward.

"Yeah, it seems you have decided to come out of your hiding spot..." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

"I am genuinely surprised that I got to meet you again so soon..."

"Demon King Nebo Dahaka..."