"Run!" Jenkins had been watching Gilgen closely this entire time, and as soon as he saw Gilgen lash out again, he immediately pushed Gwen away before raising his own snapped sword in retaliation.

"Father!" Gwen was sent flying uncontrollably through the air by her father's shove, and by the time she stabilized herself in mid-air and turned around, the scarlet radiance released by the Zhu Yan sword had already encompassed her father's entire body.

Immediately thereafter, an agonized howl rang out from Jenkins's lips.

Gilgen's attack had sliced off both of Jenkins's forearms. Even so, he still showed no intention of letting Jenkins off the hook, and only after his sword had sliced another gash onto Jenkins's chest did the attack draw to a conclusion.

A pair of severed hands holding a broken sword fell onto the battlefield down below.

The Effer Kingdom's royal cavaliers were fighting with great spirit and zeal prior to this, but morale was significantly shaken at the sight of the gruesome injuries sustained by their general. No one could've anticipated that the general from the Skycourt Kingdom would be so horrifically powerful. It was a two-on-one battle, yet Jenkins had still been severely wounded in such a short time, an outcome that truly beggared belief.

In this situation, there was no time for Gwen to dwell on her grief. With a gentle tap of her staff, she immediately sprang up into the air to catch the grievously wounded Jenkins.

"I didn't think that he would be so powerful. I was too eager to earn accolades in battle, and I'm now being made to pay for it," Governor Jenkins said in a hoarse voice as he laid in his own daughter's arms. His face was already completely devoid of color, and blood was still gushing out of his two severed arms.

"Father, what do we do now?" Gwen asked in an urgent voice.

"Indeed, what are you going to do now, Jenkins?" Gilgen descended not far away from Jenkins and his daughter, and he cast his gaze toward Jenkins with an amused smile. "How about you surrender to me? Look at the pitiful state that you're in. What would be the point in continuing to fight any longer?"

"Ptui! In your dreams! I'm not a coward who would surrender to an enemy in exchange for survival!" Jenkins spat in Gilgen's direction with a hateful expression, then tried to support himself into an upright position, only to realize, once again, that his hands were already gone, and that only further exacerbated his fury and resentment.

Gwen positioned herself in front of Jenkins once again as she stared intently at Gilgen with unbridled fury in her eyes, even though her staff-wielding hand was trembling slightly, a fact that did not escape Gilgen's observation. One couldn't fault Gwen for this. After all, in the face of an opponent this fearsome, it was only understandable that she would be very fearful. In particular, she was only a young woman who had stepped onto the battlefield for the very first time, so her composure and poise were already quite remarkable.

"I must say, your daughter is quite courageous," Gilgen praised with a faint smile. "She's just a little lacking in power and experience."

"Who could've imagined that the mighty general of the Skycourt Kingdom's army would be so intent on hunting down a little girl? How about you pick on someone your own size?" Jenkins was incapable of even standing up anymore, so he was naturally unable to push his own daughter aside. As such, he could only hurl insults at Gilgen in the hope that his daughter would be spared.

"If I really were intent on hunting her down, she would already be dead! Perhaps that would've been a blessing for her because she wouldn't have to listen to you spouting nonsense then," Gilgen said in a cold voice. "In your current condition, even if you surrender to me, you'll only have a few more days to live anyway. How about I take your daughter back with me as a servant?"

"How dare you!" Jenkins was so enraged to hear this that he threw up another large mouthful of blood, and his chest was heaving violently. If Gilgen were correct in his assessment that Jenkins only had a few days left to live, then being enraged like this would've cut down his remaining lifespan by half once again.

Gwen was holding tightly onto her staff as she watched Gilgen with a wary expression. She had no spare attention to pay to the verbal insults that Gilgen was directing toward her and her father. She could hear her own father throwing up blood behind her, and she wanted to turn around to treat him, but she was afraid that Gilgen would take advantage of that opportunity to attack again, so she didn't dare to do anything.

Truth be told, given the vast disparity in power between the two, it really didn't make much difference whether she kept an eye on Gilgen or not.

"I don't want to look at this heart-wrenching display of father-and-daughter love any longer. If you're both so intent on resisting to the bitter end, then I'll send you two on your way together. That way, at least you'll both have some company in the afterlife," Gilgen said in a cold voice. He was a war-hardened general who had no qualms about killing women, and he thrust his sword directly toward Gwen.

Gwen immediately conjured up a physical shield to protect herself, but in the face of Gilgen's power, the effect of such a spell was so negligible that it was virtually nonexistent. However, Gwen had already anticipated this, and she quickly retreated a few steps as she began to chant an incantation with tightly furrowed brows.

After breaking through the physical shield, Gilgen's sword pierced directly toward Gwen's throat, and Jenkins's heart was about to leap out of his chest upon seeing this. He desperately wanted to take the attack for his daughter, but he couldn't even get up in his current condition, so he could only look on with a helpless expression.

All of a sudden, a determined look appeared on Gwen's face, and she pointed her staff directly forward toward the oncoming Zhu Yan sword. A thin arc of violet lightning immediately shot out of the tip of her staff, striking the tip of Gilgen's sword, then traveling along its blade all the way until it reached Gilgen's arm.

Gilgen's brows furrowed slightly as he was struck by the spell, and he looked down at the band of thin violet electricity, which had wound itself around his wrist like a shackle. What was most alarming to him was that he could feel his own life force begin to slowly seep out of his body before being absorbed by this thin band of strange violet lightning.

"What kind of magic is this?" Gilgen asked as he turned to Gwen with a furious expression. It was clear that this was quite a formidable spell, even for someone as powerful as him.

"Are you scared?" Gwen asked with a mocking sneer. Perhaps she hadn't even noticed this herself, but her lips had already been completely drained of color, and her complexion had also become terrifyingly pale.

As it turned out, this was a spell that was fueled by her own life force, and it was capable of devouring the life force of its target. If the spell were allowed to draw upon the target's life force without being interrupted, the thin arc of lightning would continue to grow more and more powerful until both Gwen and Gilgen were sucked completely dry and reduced to a pair of skeletons.

"You've gone insane!" Gilgen spat in Gwen's direction. He had no intention of losing his life to someone like her, and he immediately brought the index and middle fingers on his left hand together before stabbing them viciously toward his own right wrist, which had been bound by the arc of violet lightning. He could sense that the spell had already devoured a great deal of life energy from both of them.

In the end, it was Gilgen's superior power that allowed him to come out on top. His fingers dug viciously into his own right wrist, reaching so deep that they had almost pierced into his own radial artery. In doing so, he was able to forcibly sever the spell.

Gwen also immediately ceased her output of magic power upon seeing this. Otherwise, she would've been completely sucked dry.

Jenkins was very relieved to see that his daughter had survived that ordeal.

"I'll admit, that was a very impressive trump card to have up your sleeve," Gilgen praised with a smile and a nod. However, his smile then quickly faded, and he abruptly turned around before thrusting his sword toward the completely defenseless Governor Jenkins.

Meanwhile, Gwen was barely able to maintain consciousness, and she couldn't muster up even a single ounce of strength in her entire body, so there was no way that she could step in to save her father. Thus, she could only look on helplessly as her father was stabbed through the chest, then nailed firmly to the Marrod Plain by Gilgen's Zhu Yan sword.

Governor Jenkins raised his handless arm with great difficulty, and the severed bones in the cross-section of the wound were clearly visible. He cast a concerned gaze toward his daughter, and he seemed to have countless things to say to her, but was unable to utter a single word, and that was preventing him from resting in peace. However, no matter how reluctant he was to part with his daughter, he could only accept the embrace of death in the end.

Gwen's mouth was gaped wide open, and her mind had gone completely blank as she looked on with a slack-jawed expression. She couldn't believe what she had just witnessed. She could only stare as her father looked at her one last time, and she found herself unable to utter even a single sound.

Thus concluded the life of one of the most powerful officials of the Effer Kingdom.

All of Jenkins's allies spread throughout all corners of the battlefield had also witnessed this, and all of them were struck by a sense of absurdity that they were struggling to come to terms with. Just this morning, they had gathered together behind Jenkins, envisioning the wealth and status that would come from the accolades that they were going to earn during this war, yet all of a sudden, Jenkins was dead, and it wasn't even noon yet.

King Cameron's expression remained completely unchanged as he observed the battlefield in the north in silence. Beside him stood Count Friar, who was also completely calm and composed as he watched the scenes of Jenkins's death through his monocular.

Even though Jenkins had been a political rival of his for many years, Prince Lazaar wasn't displaying any joy or relief from witnessing Jenkins's death. It was as if he were merely witnessing the death of someone completely insignificant, with the outcome having no bearing on his mental state whatsoever.

"How cold and calculating of His Majesty. To think that Jenkins is already dead this early into the battle," Archbishop Sirius said with a smile as he stood next to Prince Lazaar.

"It's quite remarkable that an idiot like Jenkins was able to survive as a high-ranking official in the royal court for so long," Lazaar sighed. "By the way, have you already assembled all of your troops?"

"I have. They are gathered right behind your troops," Sirius replied.

Lazaar nodded in response.

Gilgen pulled his sword out from Jenkins's body in a cold and indifferent manner, then cast his gaze toward the completely dazed and disoriented Gwen, and he suddenly lost interest in killing her.

"You can go now," Gilgen said in an expressionless manner.

A flash of resentment immediately appeared in Gwen's eyes upon hearing this, and she clambered to her feet before swinging her staff down toward Gilgen.

Gilgen shook his head with a resigned expression, then caught the staff right before it struck his forehead. At the same time, he lashed out with his sword-wielding hand, plunging his blade directly through Gwen's stomach.

However, Gwen seemed to be incapable of feeling any pain as she continued onward, even as the blade of the sword plunged deeper and deeper into her body in the process. She raised her bloodstained hands, and with single-minded determination and hatred in her eyes, she was desperately trying to strangle Gilgen to death.

Gilgen could see a hollow look intermingled with the hatred and resentment in Gwen's eyes, and he knew that she had already worked up the resolve to die here. A hint of pity appeared in his eyes as he sighed, "What a pitiful child..."

He then raised the staff that he had taken from Gwen before giving her a gentle knock on the forehead, and she immediately fell unconscious.