An hour wasn't much time, which was why Thalion didn't even start another part of his armor and instead cleaned up the room.
He also thought about what he would do with the elf.
If those elves believed they could do whatever they wanted, simply telling them no wouldn't get him anywhere. No, it was time to make an example.
He just hadn't figured out where exactly he would draw the line.
What would be enough for him to grab the opposing elf and slowly start pulling the fellow's intestines out? As a response to an insult, that was probably a bit much. Challenging his leadership was something else entirely.
This was indeed dangerous territory.
Ricarda was growing stronger and there were no roadblocks standing in the way of her evolution. The gods needed Thalion for publicity, but would they intervene if Ricarda decided that she should rule this faction instead?
On the positive side, even if she reached D-grade, Thalion still had his friends. They were all powerful in their own right and rapidly approaching D-grade as well.
Still, there were also quite a few elves that shouldn't be underestimated.
If the elves continued to be this unreliable, he might eventually have to end the alliance. He had already gotten most of what he wanted from it, with the location of the teleportation circle being the most important prize. The smiths, alchemists, and knowledge required to build those incredibly potent walls were merely additional benefits.
Even so, they still hadn't sent any corpses of extremely powerful beasts through the portal. Maybe they thought he was still on his way to secure the teleportation circle.
Luckily, Ricarda would still need some time before reaching D-grade.
Until then they should make the most of the alliance because it could end rather quickly.
With the new plant, Thalion wasn't entirely confident he could defeat Ricarda if she evolved first. They had fought before and she now knew what he was capable of. It was probably safest to remove her before she could reach D-grade.
The Primordial Bloodseed would certainly be happy to devour her new plant.
He doubted she would see it coming.
Not that he enjoyed all the scheming, but Thalion had seen too much and wasn't particularly trusting. Allowing someone to surpass him in power when they might not have the best intentions toward him was stupid and, in most cases, deadly.
Once his room was cleaned up, Thalion made his way toward the plaza.
Humans and elves alike were already gathering in the streets and on the rooftops. The plaza itself was completely packed and Thalion had to use Telekinetic Dash to leap into the center where everyone could see him.
From there he used blood manipulation to remain suspended roughly five meters above the ground.
His glowing red eyes swept over the crowd.
The humans looked mostly normal. Some appeared annoyed, but overall they were relatively respectful.
The elves were different.
In many of their eyes he saw distance, contempt, or outright hatred.
He had also underestimated how many powerful elven warriors were currently on New Earth. Most of them had clearly arrived through the portal and while they were individually weaker than him, Thalion wasn't entirely sure he could fight all of them at once if they decided to intervene.
At least not without significant casualties.
There were also plenty of weaklings. A few were still F-grade, mostly former human slaves.
Ricarda was present as well, though Thalion doubted she would interfere if he decided to kill a few elves.
What troubled him far more was how many elves stood around her and how openly they glared at him.
If they had any influence over her, it likely wasn't a positive one.
Elves were schemers. That much was a given.
Fortunately, Thalion wasn't exactly bad at scheming himself.
After waiting long enough, he decided it was time to begin.
"Greetings. I hope all of you are enjoying yourselves while growing stronger."
He figured that since this speech would be mostly negative, it was important to start with a few friendly words.
Mana carried his voice across the entire plaza so that everyone could hear him clearly.
"I have also been working tirelessly on improving myself until someone knocked on my door. Instead of continuing to grow stronger, which happens to be one of my favorite hobbies, I was forced to stop and think about what has happened to this base."
He paused briefly.
So far nothing unusual had happened.
The elves remained calm while the humans looked increasingly confused. Some even took a step back, apparently thinking this was somehow about them.
"Normally, when you conquer a settlement and allow the defeated to live, you would expect them to be grateful that you didn't kill them."
His voice hardened.
"Yet now I hear that elves are stripping resources from humans and preventing promising individuals from traveling to the gods' domain for training."
His glowing eyes moved over the elven crowd.
"If you don't have a very good explanation, I will consider that treason."
The elves clearly didn't take his words very seriously. Most simply looked back at him with even greater arrogance, as if this were nothing but empty threats.
Meanwhile, the humans began to murmur among themselves.
For the humans this would have been a significant upgrade and they had probably assumed that Thalion was involved in those decisions.
After the elves ignored them and merely looked at him as if they didn't owe anyone an explanation, Thalion decided to offer a little assistance.
"Since you don't seem to understand," he began.
At that point he shifted into the Eclipsari and stopped suppressing his sinister aura.
"If you don't explain yourselves right now, I will personally kill every single long-eared bastard in this base. And pray to your gods that you aren't the last one I get my hands on because that death will be long and painful."
The humans closest to him immediately retreated after feeling the pressure of his aura.
The elves, most of whom stood near the back or sat on rooftops, slowly rose to their feet.
They looked more offended than afraid.
"What exactly are you talking about, human?" one of the elves beside Ricarda announced loudly as he floated toward Thalion. "I am simply carrying out the orders of my gods and allocating the gathered resources to those with the greatest potential."
His lip curled in disdain.
"How long have you even lived under the System? One year? Two? What do you know about leadership? I have lived for hundreds of years and you think you can threaten me? For what? Doing my job correctly?"
The elf spread his arms.
"Show me this human who is supposedly so promising that he deserves additional resources."
In hindsight, Thalion probably should have asked around a bit more before calling everyone together.
He hadn't expected the elf to actually try to justify himself.
"Hmm, it's rather difficult for former slaves to grow stronger when you take all their loot, isn't it?" Thalion replied.
Killing the elf right now would be premature.
He needed a little more justification before resorting to brutal murder.
"The fate of the weak. There is nothing unusual about that. It happens everywhere throughout the wider multiverse." The elf shrugged.
"Now, if that is all, I would like to file an official complaint for wasting everyone's time with this nonsense. You—"
"AAARGH!"
The elf had already turned around and started floating back toward the others when Thalion appeared behind him.
One claw plunged through the elf's back.
A scream echoed across the plaza.
Shock spread through the crowd.
Several elves drew their weapons but none dared to attack.
Slowly, Thalion pulled the claw free before grabbing the elf by the throat and turning him around.
Now the elf received the full force of his aura.
The pressure alone was enough to make him tremble.
Thalion slowly carved a pattern into the elf's skin with his claws.
The screams only grew louder.
The elf desperately punched and struggled, trying to break free.
It was hopeless.
At one point he attempted to empower his fist and strike back, but a black tendril shot from Thalion's shoulder and wrapped itself around the elf's arm.
Every second it tightened.
Bones cracked.
Flesh sizzled as it was slowly transformed into darkness.
"I am the leader of this faction."
Thalion's voice carried across the silent plaza.
"Something none of you should ever forget."
He slowly pulled the elf's right eyeball from its socket.
"You will do as I say when I say it."
The elf's screams became even more frantic.
"Since you have already betrayed my trust once, your craftsmen will now work exclusively for the humans."
Thalion tightened his grip.
"You will contribute your full share of loot to the human population."
His pitch black eyes swept across the crowd.
"This is not negotiable."
None of the elves answered.
Everyone simply watched as Thalion tore the elf apart piece by piece.
Only when the elf was on the verge of death did Thalion finally rip what remained of him apart and throw the body aside.
"Otherwise, you are welcome to leave."
His voice turned colder.
"Or die."
Since the elves were clearly planning something, Thalion had decided to turn the situation around and cut off their resources entirely.
Yet even after all of that the elves remained silent.
Nobody attacked.
Nobody protested.
So Thalion decided to push things one step further.
"Humans, what are you waiting for?" he shouted.
"Take whatever you want from the elves, excluding the equipment they are currently wearing. If it suits your path, it is yours."
His gaze hardened.
"And if any of you start hoarding resources for yourselves, you will be next on the chopping block."
Then he looked toward Ricarda.
"Ricarda. Follow me. We need to talk."
As he spoke those final words, he shifted back into his human form.
Only then did the humans finally begin to move.
Many of them had once been slaves and it took them a moment to realize that nobody was going to stop them.
Slowly they started walking toward the elves.
What Thalion had just done was highly unproductive if one looked purely at the military strength of the base.
On the other hand, he doubted it would matter all that much.
In the end, only the true powerhouses of a faction decided how a battlefield would unfold.
What did he care if those elves had to give up some of their loot?
He would let Kaldrek or Pikar bring order to the chaos once they returned.
The elves all looked toward Ricarda, who was now slowly rising to her feet.
Thalion could see it in their eyes.
If Ricarda attacked now, every elf would follow.
Luckily, that didn't happen.
Instead, Ricarda simply followed him as Thalion quickly used his movement skill to return to his mansion while concealing his aura once more.
"What do you want? I had nothing to do with them. The only thing I've been doing is focusing on getting stronger." Ricarda asked when she arrived outside his door.
Thalion wasn't going to invite her inside. There was no reason to show off what he had been working on.
"Perhaps. Still, you are the highest-ranking elf here. A Chosen they all look up to." Thalion simply stated.
Sure, she might not have been directly involved, but she was the one person capable of ending this quickly. Otherwise he would have to solve the problem himself one way or another.
The elves would only grow more frustrated while, in their eyes, weak humans were taking the loot.
A confrontation was unavoidable.
The best-case scenario was that things would return to normal after a week or two and everyone would move on.
Still, Thalion suspected that elves weren't the type of people who simply let things go.
When he had conquered the outpost, he had assumed they wouldn't dare try anything against him.
Looking back, that assumption seemed rather naive.
There was also the issue of the first D-grades emerging in the coming months.
Most of them would be elves.
Yes, his friends would reach D-grade as well, but would that be enough?
Thalion would prefer to have everything settled before an all-out civil war erupted.
"What are you insinuating? I have never been involved in politics my entire life and now I simply follow the orders of my goddess." Ricarda insisted, clearly not understanding what he was getting at.
"Well, if you don't want me killing more elves to stop them from targeting the weaker humans in our faction, you might want to take action. Not that I'm particularly opposed to slaughtering your kind. Since entering the tutorial, I've never been especially fond of you pointy-eared bastards. We had some pretty cool stories about elves on my home planet, but your people turned out to be more like orcs or Uruk-hai."
That clearly struck a nerve.
"Oh, like you're any different." Ricarda snapped. "Humans kill humans just like we do. I'd be surprised if you don't enslave each other as well. Especially you. You must have killed hundreds of your own kind already and now you want to lecture me? At least we elves stick together while trying to make the best of the current situation."
"Woman, are you stupid?" Thalion blurted out.
"Of course we kill one another. We also enslave one another. The difference is that your people walk around with this endless arrogance and superiority complex. Your kind constantly looks down on everyone who isn't an elf."
His eyes narrowed.
"Do you think I'm blind? The elves in this base have been treating the human part of the faction like laborers. If that doesn't change, I will continue getting involved in politics."
His voice hardened.
"And honestly, I dislike distractions even more than scheming. The next time this happens it won't be one elf meeting a painful end."
He crossed his arms.
"Is the message clear now?"
Ricarda remained silent for several seconds, her expression shifting between anger and genuine offense.
"Are you threatening the alliance?" she finally asked, her eyes narrowing.
For a moment Thalion got the feeling that her patron had become involved in the conversation.
"Of course not. But right now it looks like your elves are failing to uphold their side of the agreement. I certainly don't need a group of elves trying to kill me the moment an opportunity presents itself."
"We would never do something like that. The fact that they didn't attack you today after your crime proves their loyalty." Ricarda shot back.
"Loyalty?" Thalion laughed. "Ricarda, don't make me laugh. Your people already crossed the line with their interpretation of resource distribution."
He shook his head.
"Either way, this conversation is over. You either figure out a way for humans and elves to live together in the same base or I will take action."
Then he paused.
"Oh, and tell your patron to relay a message to Solan and Nyssa. If possible, I need a form capable of manipulating souls or possessing skills related to soul manipulation."
His eyes briefly drifted toward the crafting room behind him.
"And I need it sooner rather than later."
Ricarda simply stared at him, clearly perplexed by the sudden change in topic.
Thalion didn't care.
He slammed the door shut in front of her, ending the discussion.
He needed to get back to crafting.
For some reason, he couldn't shake the feeling that the peaceful times were slowly coming to an end.