The Lion King (Lion King) 7

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“Huuu…”

Archmage Undying sighed deeply while gazing at the communication stone.

The signal had disconnected again – Sir Enoch was not answering his calls.

‘And the enemy forces shall arrive by tomorrow…’

The first council had already concluded while the second commenced yesterday.

Yet Doyun had not shown up at all – a pivotal absence considering he represented one of their most crucial assets rivaling even Bruder himself.

‘Could he have engaged the Saint King in actual combat…?!’

No matter how much of his former prime Enoch had regained, defeating the current Saint King remained an impossibility – that man reigned as the Alliance’s undisputed paramount in one-on-one battles.

As Archmage Undying exhaled despondently pondering the myriad potential reasons behind this prolonged unresponsiveness, only troubled apprehension gripped his mind:

‘Nothing seems to proceed smoothly at all…’

The first council had ended while this second session originally commencing yesterday had extended into today with no tangible resolutions emerging.

Their predicament had become too dire – Muspelheim’s imminent fall would spell utter devastation without Sir Enoch’s presence to bolster their chances.

‘I beseech you, please return to us soon, Sir Enoch…!’

The designated start time for this second council neared as the attendees filed in one by one to take their seats.

Once all had assembled, one particular seat remained conspicuously vacant as it had throughout the prior session too – Doyun’s designated position.

“…Just where has Apostle Han Doyun wandered off to this time?!”

Even one not among the vocal Doyun detractors eventually lost patience, raising his voice in exasperation.

Seizing this opening, the few openly hostile towards Doyun escalated their derisive tones as well:

“To abstain from such a pivotal council determining the Alliance’s very survival despite personally requesting admission!”

“How can one touted as a potential future Paladin exhibit such gross irresponsibility?!”

Bruder, garbed immaculately in pristine white robes with his sword resting across his lap, cast an icy gaze towards the dais.

Maintaining his trademark ‘stillness mirroring placid waters’ meditative stance, he inwardly contemplated:

‘Two seconds…’

Those who had just spewed such vitriol – he could sever them all within two seconds if provoked.

Feeling the chill emanating from his late father’s sixth sword collection helped steady his composure.

“His candidacy as a potential successor…!”

“Such pivotal future leadership decisions for the Alliance itself…!”

Despite the grave matters awaiting their council, they persisted berating Doyun’s absence unreservedly.

Thwack.

Only when Lei’s draconic claws gouged the table did Heineken finally intervene with a cautionary glare.

‘How dare these insignificant runts insult my brother like that…’

As the reptilian slits narrowing Lei’s eyes revealed her barely restrained fury:

Knock knock.

A rap on the door audibly preceded the announcement:

[Apostle Doyun requests entry.]

All eyes turned towards the entrance as Doyun strode inside, grey traveling cloak billowing behind him.

Archmage Undying had initially smiled warmly before his expression froze upon realizing Doyun’s lone arrival.

‘…Ah, he failed after all.’

Well, convincing that uncompromisingly stalwart Saint King had represented an improbable long shot from the outset – not due to any shortcoming on Enoch’s part, but simply an excessive difficulty altogether.

“My apologies for the tardiness.”

Doyun offered a curt bow towards the assembled council.

“Just where have you been gallivanting until now?!”

“So much for being deemed worthy of potential future Paladinhood at this rate, hmm?”

The heckling faction seized the opportunity to openly mock him once more.

Yet Doyun made no mentions about his reasons for lateness or even his discussions with the Saint King – self-admitting such futile endeavors would only invite further scorn after all, with no one harboring any genuine expectations in the first place.

They continued hurling jeers trailing Doyun’s approach towards the dais:

“Just take your seat already…”

However, Doyun strode past his designated position entirely.

His detractors furrowed their brows in visible displeasure.

“Where are you going?! You arrogant fool barely permitted to attend through our graciousness – the back row represents your proper place!”

Ignoring their derision, Doyun continued his advance towards the briefing monitors at the very forefront.

As he brushed past her, Lei tilted her head slightly while sniffing intently:

‘Sweat, soil, blood… You’ve been fighting, haven’t you?’

Doyun approached the council dais, inwardly thinking:

‘This war shall prove truly arduous indeed.’

Even he could not guarantee any assurances regarding their prospective victory.

Should Muspelheim fall, everything would utterly collapse without any room for reservation – desperate circumstances demanded audacious measures.

From a spatial rift, he extracted a collection of documents before handing them over to the council clerks assisting with proceedings.

“Eh, uhh…”

Flustered at first, those clerks soon began distributing those materials among the gathered attendees after a momentary pause.

“Hm?”

“…What is this?”

As they scrutinized those documents more closely:

The insights Doyun was about to reveal represented information only one who had directly clashed with those Vanguard Generals repeatedly could possibly access.

Naturally, voicing such disclosures would immediately raise scrutiny over his sources that simply could not be circumvented.

Yet as mentioned – given their dire predicament, circumspect reservations paled beside the urgency of their current crisis.

‘I have grown strong enough to bear such burdensome truths at last.’

With that mental declaration, Doyun gestured towards the monitor displays while beginning his address:

“Before our briefing commences properly, I request you all review these materials first.”

The gathered Paladins and various dignitaries doubted their own eyes upon examining those documents more closely:

“But…?”

“…What is this? Just where did you obtain such detailed information on…?”

Exhaustively comprehensive dossiers detailing the Vanguard Generals’ various traits and abilities – including those deceased over a century ago.

Too meticulously documented to dismiss as forgeries while corroborating with known existing data too seamlessly.

Archmage Undying, Bruder and Heineken all reacted with widened eyes upon glimpsing those files’ revelatory contents.

Archmage Undying hastily telepathized in alarm:

[Sir Enoch! Publicly disseminating such materials could risk exposing your…!]

…His true identity, he could not finish voicing aloud through sheer shock.

Yet Doyun ignored the various responses, rapping the display monitors for attention instead.

“At minimum, two Vanguard Generals shall participate in this coming war – potentially even three.”

All eyes turned towards him intently.

“Among them must include either the Succubus Queen ‘Lilith’ or the Archfiend ‘Satan’ himself.”

No longer Apostle Han Doyun, but Paladin Enoch Razvolnic, vanguard commander of the Alliance – he began issuing his briefing.

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A torrent of disclosures no ordinary Apostle should have realistically accessed – intimate insights into the Demon Lord’s forces alongside Vanguard General specifics only one who had confronted them firsthand could possibly acquire.

Even trivial personal habits and mannerisms leaving others bewildered over his unnatural expertise initially.

Yet the urgency gripping this dire situation soon eclipsed any misgivings as they became immersed, drinking in these invaluable revelations like a parched desert wanderer discovering an oasis.

His prior detractors too flushed red, clearing their throats awkwardly chastened into silence.

“…Particularly Satan and Lilith – each possesses specialized powers catering towards entire ‘legions’, enabling them to play pivotal roles on any battlefield.”

Satan whose very demonic authority represented an army unto itself, commanding the lowliest ranks of hell-born imps numbering in the tens of thousands.

A century ago, each represented combative might rivaling elite Apostles despite their diminutive statures – a veritable force of nature overwhelming through sheer numberical superiority.

Lilith possessing dominion over male enragement – able to bestow widespread auras of frenzied battle-lust upon entire legions of male warriors spanning vast areas.

Even among mere mindless demonic mobs, at minimum 50% would undergo drastic enhancements under its effects – catalyzing absolutely cataclysmic impacts upon the battlefield itself.

Judging from the invasion’s current advance speed, at least one such General had to be among their forces – potentially even both simultaneously.

‘And their timing seems rather suspect too…’

Over these recent decades, Satan, Lilith and many other prominent Vanguard Generals had conspicuously vanished from battlefields altogether.

While some had dismissed their absence as stemming from the prolonged defensive sieges confined within barrier stone territories…

Doyun perceived an inextricable link between their ‘timing’ and disappearance instead.

‘That minor imp incursion earlier this year.’

The imps manifesting in Rockenmeyer for the first time in decades had displayed drastically elevated might overall.

Moreover, their total number amounted to a mere eighteen – too insignificant to serve any plausible strategic purpose overtly.

Doyun had sensed an experimental undertone behind that isolated raid as if testing some unknown variable.

“…”

A profound regret overcame him for neglecting further Vanguard General culling a century ago whenever such opportunities arose.

Especially under their current predicament – that one particular oversight leaving a certain adversary unslain despite nearing the killing blow felt utterly unforgivable now in hindsight.

‘Lilith – I should have finished her off back then.’

A century prior, the Alliance had miraculously succeeded capturing the Succubus Queen Vanguard General Lilith herself alive.

An unprecedented feat even across Enoch’s eighteen regression cycles hitherto.

Only achieved through an astronomical miracle combined with Lilith’s inherent inferiority as the weakest Vanguard General enabling her captivity.

After interrogations, she had been subjected to horrific gang rapes and depraved tortures at the hands of innumerable soldiers venting their festered wartime anguish upon her.

That exotic allure of a Succubus Queen physique combined with her elite Vanguard General status had indiscriminately enthralled men and women alike into that depravity.

Many had eagerly seized the long-awaited catharsis to unleash the pent-up fury accumulated throughout that interminable century-long war.

Enoch himself included among those perpetrating the worst atrocities upon her sensual flesh.

‘An experience not entirely unpleasant, all things considered.’

The Succubus Queen’s carnal form had truly proven exquisite in its own right. Enoch had ranked among those subjecting her to the cruelest agonizing defilements imaginable.

Relentlessly venting that entire 18th cycle’s worth of sheer impotent frustrations directly upon her humiliated, shattered dignity.

Yet the Alliance had become complacent in their hubris:

‘The moment her interrogations proved intractable, we should have executed her immediately…’

No, calling it ‘complacency’ seemed unfair in hindsight.

Lilith’s detainment and confinement had been meticulously secured through every conceivable precaution – utterly uncompromising thoroughness had been their watchwords.

Yet the Demon Lord’s response in retaliation had far exceeded the Alliance’s projections beyond their wildest imaginations.

‘Never could we have fathomed they would commit to an all-out offensive just for her retrieval…’

An astounding three Vanguard Generals had mounted that rescue incursion directly into their barrier stone headquarters where Enoch himself had been stationed at his paramount prime, no less.

In the end, the Alliance had indeed relinquished Lilith – yet the Demon Lord’s forces had sustained utterly catastrophic losses in that one-sided trade.

Three entire Vanguard General’s barrier entry costs alongside one dying during the incursion itself while another sustained mortal wounds during their retreat.

Losses so egregiously excessive compared to any prospective gains from retrieving Lilith that no Alliance strategists could fathom the Demon Lord’s apparent irrationalities motivating such wasteful insanity.

‘Did Lilith possess some hidden strategic value we still remain unaware of?’

A lingering question even Enoch himself had pondered over fruitlessly to this day.

In any case, Doyun’s briefing soon catalyzed the council into vigorous debate as this deluge of actionable new information prompted a whirlwind of proposed countermeasures oscillating back and forth.

Of course, their ultimate strategic conclusions remained largely unchanged despite those revelations:

“…Even employing such combined tactics and force compositions, could we still prevail without the Lion King’s presence?”

“…Truthfully, I remain doubtful. Even with His Majesty’s fabled participation, such an engagement would still prove exceedingly daunting.”

These crucially supplemental insights only served highlighting their grim predicaments with renewed clarity ultimately.

Both the Alliance’s paramount Paladins had become non-factors under their current conditions.

Whereas the projected enemy deployments ranged at such overwhelming scopes, no viable countermeasures seemed forthcoming whatsoever – compounded by the unpredictable x-factor of systemic enhancements further bolstering their commanders and Vanguard Generals.

The council’s proceedings stagnated in indecisive circles once more.

“Huuu…”

One general sighed heavily while pinching the bridge of his nose, testaments to his sheer mental exhaustion.

“…Hmm?”

Then a nagging thought resurfaced momentarily from the back of his mind amidst contemplating their dire straits:

“Speaking of which, just how did Apostle Doyun acquire such invaluable intelligence in the first place?”

Those materials exuded an intimate familiarity akin to one who had battled each Vanguard General repeatedly through personal experience.

The spirited deliberations momentarily lulled as those harboring the same curiosity turned their gazes towards Doyun inquisitively.

Heineken bit his lip awkwardly:

‘…Oh dear.’

He, Archmage Undying and Bruder all sensed the inevitable implications arriving – this had been Sir Enoch’s apparent intention from the very start, after all.

They too could not help regarding Doyun with bated anticipation and trepidation:

Just what did Sir Enoch intend unveiling under these circumstances? How did he plan circumventing this revelation unfolding?

‘Surely he does not intend…?’

…Disclosing his true identity so directly?

As all eyes converged upon him with undivided focus:

“Um…”

Just as Doyun seemed about to provide some explanation:

“…?!”

His head snapped upwards sharply as his pupils dilated while boring intensely through the palace’s upper levels.

“…Apostle Doyun?”

Though the others reacted with visible bewilderment over his inexplicable shift, Doyun could not even respond – utterly dumbstruck by the overwhelmingly ominous presence he had just sensed radiating overhead.

‘Just what in the…?!’

An incomprehensibly immense miasma pulsed from beyond that ceiling – a mana signature dwarfing even the combined auras of everyone within this very council chambers.

A true monster had unexpectedly manifested on the upper palace levels so abruptly without any forewarning.

How could something of that staggering caliber appear so suddenly? A Vanguard General, perhaps…?

Just then:

Bam!

The council chambers’ doors burst open as a panting, breathless vassal stumbled inside haphazardly.

“Huhh, huhh, hurghh…!”

Completely disregarding protocol, that panicked man struggled regaining his composure.

“…What is the meaning of this?”

Such an unforgivable disruption of the Alliance’s highest echelon leadership council simply beggared belief – an inexcusable transgression deserving the harshest reprimands for that vassal alongside the exterior guards permitting this unforgivable breach.

“Huhhh, huhhh…!”

Yet not a shred of trepidation flickered across the man’s widened eyes.

“His Majesty… the King himself…!”

Instead, he addressed the chambers with an expression radiating sheer rapturous elation:

“The Lion King has arrived in person!”

“…!!”

Everyone within that council leapt to their feet simultaneously, dumbstruck.