Chapter 244: You Cannot Go
Ryan let out a light, tired sigh, feeling a familiar and annoying weight on his broad back. Karol was still hanging from his neck, biting his ear with great insistence as if it were a toy.
He didn’t make any sudden movements to push her away, resigned to the blue-haired girl’s strange attitude.
"Yes, this girl is the party’s main mage," Ryan stated, turning his face slightly to look at Ivis.
"I don’t believe you two have met yet. She just returned to the villa from a long mission," he added with a calm voice, ignoring the slight pain in his ear.
Ivis frowned deeply, looking at the little girl hanging from her ally with great skepticism. The imposing dragon woman crossed her arms, as if the introduction were a bad joke.
"I can’t believe you’re playing around with me like this at such a serious time," Ivis complained with evident annoyance.
"Why would you have a defenseless little girl in an attack group?"
Ivis scanned the girl from top to bottom with her sharp magical senses.
"Her mana is as weak and fragile as that of a simple, ordinary human," Ivis added, letting out a clear voice of disappointment.
"Who are you calling weak?" Karol said suddenly, stopping her bite but without letting go of Ryan’s ear.
The girl’s voice changed drastically from a high-pitched, childish tone to one much more mature, firm, and dangerous. And in just a couple of short seconds, Karol’s body glowed intensely and regained its original size.
The baggy clothes quickly adjusted to her new, voluptuous adult woman figure, completely breaking the childish illusion. Karol wrapped her long arms around Ryan from behind, trapping his head directly between her large breasts.
Ivis opened her eyes in great surprise upon feeling the sudden, overwhelming shift in power filling the immense gray room. The girl’s nonexistent mana had turned into a magical presence comparable to an S-rank in the blink of an eye.
"So that’s what this was all about. You really like having everything around you be completely abnormal, don’t you?" Ivis said with irony, recovering her usual relaxed posture after processing the visual deception.
"Who are you calling abnormal!" all the girls yelled at the same time, filling the refuge with their loud voices.
The only ones who remained quiet and calm at the sudden group insult were Alicia and Beatrice.
"Enough," Ryan intervened immediately, raising a hand to calm the imminent noise and fighting.
"Get off my back once and for all," he ordered the beautiful blue-haired mage.
"Don’t talk to me so meanly," Karol said, letting go of Ryan’s neck and taking a gentle step to the side.
She puffed out her cheeks in a clear gesture of annoyance at her leader’s quick and cold rejection.
"I missed you so much during this whole trip, you know?" Karol added with a very sweet, honeyed voice.
Almost instantly, she turned Ryan’s face by holding it with both hands and gave him a quick kiss on the lips in front of everyone.
After that daring show of affection, she finally stepped away from his side so as not to provoke him further. Karol fixed her messy mage robe very calmly and stood next to Beatrice with a huge smile of satisfaction.
"Well, since all the main members are now present in the room, I want to relay the exact details of Ophelia’s plan," Ryan said, ignoring the furious jealousy in Mirian and Helen’s gazes.
The atmosphere in the stone refuge changed immediately at the mention of the demon queen’s name.
"Tsk. We have to follow that witch’s boring orders," Helen muttered with great disdain, crossing her arms tightly.
Ivis heard the direct insult toward her beloved lady and glared at the black-haired warrior with a lethal gaze full of fury.
"Silence," Ryan ordered with a very deep and authoritative voice, looking at both women to stop the conflict.
He wasn’t going to let childish, territorial fights ruin a meeting so important for their survival. Ryan settled back into a wooden seat in front of them and rested his hands on his knees.
The girls immediately fell silent, swallowing their pride, and paid full attention to their king. And then, Ryan began to recount the exact plans they would carry out in exactly three days.
He reviewed the facts and the information that Ivis had previously transmitted to him through mysterious magical telepathy. Basically, the grand plan consisted of taking advantage of a massive external conflict to attack from behind.
The powerful demon king Rigal had been developing a violent territorial dispute for a long time. Rigal had major direct border problems with the demon king Rohan.
"When King Rigal sends his Abyssal sentinels to fight," Ryan explained very calmly, detailing the scenario.
"His demon troops will go to invade part of Rohan’s territory. At that precise moment, he will be reduced to only half of his military power in his own castle."
It was a unique and perfect opportunity that they could not overlook under any circumstances. Ryan continued explaining the exact distribution of the enemy forces they would face on the battlefield.
"Rigal has six demons of the dreaded Abyssal class in his personal service," Ryan detailed seriously.
"Of which he will probably send four of them to fight the generals in Rohan’s domains. And those four Abyssals will be accompanied by one of his three powerful dragons."
"That will leave his grand castle quite unprotected," Ryan added, staring intently at the S-rank heroines.
But that didn’t mean the place would be completely empty.
Except for his strongest and most loyal sentinels who will stay by his side to protect him from any danger. And of course, the rest of his dragons that won’t go on the great invasion against Rohan will stay in the castle.
"To be exact, he has three dragons," Ryan enumerated, counting the major dangers.
"The wind dragon, Lise. The earth dragon, Mira. And the fire dragon, Luka. Ophelia’s main plan is very simple," Ryan stated, clasping his hands in front of his face.
"It is simply to force our way in and end the demon king Rigal’s life on his throne."
But Ophelia also had her own limitations and weaknesses for executing this grand surprise attack.
She cannot afford the great luxury of leaving her own nation completely unprotected against other external threats. Therefore, by leaving her safe kingdom of Morrisen to attack, she was also making the same mistake as Rigal.
So Ophelia made an important and necessary decision to look after her people’s defenses. With the exception of her loyal Infernals, the powerful Abyssals in her service will remain guarding the kingdom of Morrisen the entire time.
Which was why the great help Ryan could provide as her sole ally in the invasion was so valuable and indispensable.
While she faces Rigal in direct one-on-one combat.
Ryan’s group must cover her back and clear the rest of the way. Ryan and his strong heroines had to prevent any other high-ranking demon from interfering in the kings’ fight.
They had to stop the bodyguard Abyssals and the remaining colossal dragons at all costs.
His heroines would be in charge of dealing with the earth dragon Mira.
And Ivis would face the wind dragon, Lise, completely alone.
Which would leave Ryan at the front to personally handle the remaining Abyssals.
There was still the major problem of the lesser numbers on the massive, snowy battlefield.
The rest of the common soldiers going into that battle. Both Ophelia’s armed forces and the villa’s inhabitants.
They will be in charge of directly confronting the archdemons, principalities, and lesser legions advancing in the conflict.
It could be said with certainty that it was a fairly simple and straightforward plan for an invasion of that magnitude. And considering that the main event would be a brutal demon-king-to-demon-king clash.
Ryan didn’t see it as something so crazy or impossible to achieve with the great forces they had right now. After finishing recounting Ophelia’s complete plan without omitting details, Ryan swept his gaze over his group.
All the women present absorbed the immense amount of information and the names of the dangerous enemies to defeat. No one in the safe refuge seemed to have any doubts or fear about their assigned roles in the future battle.
"That will be very easy," Helen said suddenly, breaking the silence with a huge, arrogant smile on her face.
"Just let me take care of the strongest ones by myself," Helen said with total confidence, smashing her own fists together with excitement.
But Ryan did not share her blind enthusiasm for the impending fight at all. He dropped a finger onto the wooden table with a sharp tap that echoed in the silent place.
Ryan changed his tone instantly and stared at her with an incredibly cold and dark look.
"No," Ryan said with a deep voice that allowed for no kind of arguments or complaints.
"For this mission, you cannot go."