The king stood up from the lava naked, and as if on cue, a few beautiful dark elf servants came to help him dress-up.

Just like the king, all the elf women were half naked with just a very thin fabric covering their private parts. Each brought some soft fabrics, comfortable balms, and a bucket to help massage the king\'s athletic muscles.

As the king was currently occupied, Tristan walked towards one of the lava pools and put his hand into one of them.

Within a few seconds, the sound of sizzling along with the smell of burned meat could be heart. Tristan lifted his hand up, finding that his skin had melted into a puddle of sticky goo and his flesh beneath blackened. He can feel the flame into his bones.

He kept watching as the sizzling stopped, and his flesh and skin knitted itself up until it were intact again.

Seeing such a phenomenon, the king raised his eyebrows and asked. "Is that one of the blood elf\'s ability?"

Tristan nodded, unsure what to say due to not knowing much himself. But, Illiana took it as her initiative to explain. "The blood elf has an undying body. In other terms, they are similar to us in that they are immortal, but they have no need to reach stage 5 Katra."

Illiana\'s explanation made the king look at Tristan with an interested glance. Not many elves could manage to reach stage 5 Katra, so the immortal body was something that was coveted by many.

As for Tirstan, he once againsuprised taht Illiana knows about his undying body. This girl has certainly been hiding many things from him.

"That is impressive indeed" said the dark elf king.

Tristan casually approached the king, looked at the brimstones and pools filled with lava, and said.

"Not as impressive of being able to bath in them"

The king was currently still sitting being massaged by his servants, but then he let out a hearty laugh, causing the abs on his stomach to move slightly.

"Bath? Hahaha. You have a weird imagination, king of Arcadia, no. I was training my physique"

"Is it a spell?" Tristan curiously asks. The lava did manage to destroy the outer layer of his strong monarch body while his was seems to be fine. The king must have a very strong body.

The king was silent for a moment and decided to explain

For him spells are not enough, there are times where spells to strengthen one\'s body could not be depended on. Hence he needs to put effort into actually tempering his body.

"I used to depend on my [golden body] spells but after dozens of years tempering my physique, now I don\'t need them anymore to enter the lava pool"

Tristan finds it interesting, and it gives him a new insight. It was actually possible to temper the body like a tempering a weapon.

He himself has the regeneration skills that could protect him from any kind of wounds without them incapacitating him too much, but if he could temper his body wouldn\'t it mean he would be even harder to kill?

The elf women finally finished their treatment on the king, and the king stood up, leading Tristan to another room.

It was a chamber created with steel walls, with many spear-like pillars filling in on its walls. A throne made of dark steel, surrounded by raging fire right behind it, stood at the center of the room, drawing attention to anyone who walked in there.

The king sat on the throne, took a relaxed posture, and looked at Tristan before asking

"So, why are you here, king of Arcadia?" The dark elf king said.

Before Tristan was able to explain, Ileana was first to speak, she told the king that they met at the high elf summit. She first explains to the king about the Mist condition and the invitation for the elves to enter the mist.

The king was a little surprised but he doesn\'t seem too much excited

She then explains about the threat with the space knight but Tristan gives her a look and she suddenly stops. she bowed to Tristan and said, "I apologize. Please explain."

Tristan talked to the king about the recent attack and the threat of space knights that will come at any moment. Knowing that most elves look down on humans, he decided to ensure that the king knows all there is about their advanced, powerful weapons and spaceship, before requesting for peace and a joint operation in Arcadia to prepare.

Despite all he said about the dangers of the human invaders, the king\'s expression stayed indifferent, and thus, he has no idea what the king was thinking.

As he finished speaking, to his surprise, the king looked at the elf woman and asked. "What do you think, daughter? Are they really as big of a threat as he said…?"

The elf woman glanced at Tristan for a moment, nodded with a serious face, and said. "I believe it does. After thousands of years, the barrier that has been stopping any lifeform from entering our planet has finally opened."

After listening to her answer, Tristan was once again surprised. This elf woman, Illiana, was in the forefront regarding how grave the situation is, and as for the barrier, this was something thought only as conjecture without proof by Professor Emmet.

As he heard the answer, the king nodded and calmly asked. "What should we do, then? Should we follow his plan?"

Illiana took a few seconds to ponder the question before she nodded and explained. "Considering the strength and number of enemies expected to come, there is 72% chance that his plan will succeed if we fight together."

To be honest, Tristan has no idea where she managed to get the numbers, and that percentage might as well be pulled out of thin air. But 72 percent is still a high enough number

However, the elf woman was not finished. She added.

"28% chance of loss would not be acceptable; hence, I believe we should not follow his plan"

"… What the fuck."

As she finished his words, Tristan cursed in his mind. He had thought Illiana already agreed to help him convince the king, and the worst part is, the king was listening to his daughter\'s analysis intently.

She continued explaining, and as she stopped speaking, she glanced as Tristan, like she was wordlessly trying to dare him to disagree with her.

The explanation goes on, and she added that with the incident of Arcadia destroying the space knight ship, there are 99% chance the enemy will decide to make a preemptive strike to Arcadia first, hence if the dark elf decide to join the battle afterward would highly decrease the chance of loss in manpower for the dark elves.

The king was still calm and asked

"What are the chances Arcadia could hold on the attack and survive?"

Illiana looked to the side for a second before finally answering. "45% if Callan returns and helps, but only 10% with this blood elf as the king."

This time, there was no going around it, the woman was insulting him. Perhaps, the old him would have already shouted at the woman, but he held his tongue and asked calmly.

"Hah, 10%? Then tell me, what made you think Callan has better leadership than me?

With a wicked smile adorning her lips, Illiana answered calmly.

She explains that Arcadia has more than 1000 men dependable for the upcoming fight. From the mages, the king\'s blades and some.of the top knights

And she was sure Tristan will not be able to fully mobilize them as effectively as Callan.

Not willing to accept such comment, Tristan gave a simple fact

"Don\'t you know I managed to destroy the ship on my own?"

The woman replied rather quickly

"Such a result cannot be reproduced easily. First of all, it was not planned, and so many things could go wrong. they might have shot down your ship before you could enter the large ship"

She added

"If it wasn\'t for their interest in the blood elf… which you didn\'t know at that time, you wouldn\'t be able to gain entry to their ship easily. So it was accurate to say that what you did could be boiled down to a factor of luck."

Tristan was rendered speechless. It was as if there was nothing she couldn\'t know. At the moment he could be sure that one of his closest companion or high ranking arcadia is a spy for this female elf

She added. "While I will admit that you are a great warrior, you are an awfully bad leader."

While she spoke, she added a victorious smirk. She knew that Tristan would not take such a diagnosis lying down, and she planned to make use of it. But, the next thing she said surprised Tristan even more.

"You know, I could prove it for you. Fight me, and you will understand what I am talking about." She pointed at Tristan, confidence oozing in her every move.