Upon hearing Elijah's words, Atticus and Ignatius were visibly taken aback, finding it difficult to accept.

"Impossible!" Ignatius immediately rejected the idea. "Our well-trained and well-equipped army of 100 thousand, surrendering? No way!"

"You're absolutely right!" Atticus scoffed.

He added, "Even if the Southern Four Sovereigns combined their forces, there's no conceivable way they could defeat our hundred thousand troops overnight. You're just trying to make us panic!"

The combined military might of the Southern Four Sovereigns hovered around two to three hundred thousand.

Even if they mobilized their entire force, swiftly overcoming their substantial force of 100 thousand proved to be a formidable challenge. After all, the defenders had strategically fortified their positions, providing considerable resilience even against odds multiple times their own.

Moreover, the Four Sovereigns couldn't afford to deploy their entire military strength, as a portion had to be held in