In contrast with Count Friar's calm display, General Gilgen of the Skycourt Kingdom's army wasn't quite as composed.

An outcome was still yet to be reached in his battle against King Cameron, and what was quite concerning for him was that he was struggling slightly to keep up. Meanwhile, Master Piro and the Court Magician Council were slaughtering the Skycourt Kingdom's foot soldiers and magicians with reckless abandon. The entire formation of the rear section of the Skycourt Kingdom's army had been plunged into complete disarray by all of the spells raining down upon them.

The main problem was that the Skycourt Kingdom's magicians were unable to contend with Master Piro, so they didn't dare to get too close to him. Even though they had already escaped from the magic power restriction forcefield, as soon as they entered Master Piro's sensory range, the powerful spells erupting out of that beechwood staff of his would instantly take their lives. To compound their woes even further, Master Piro's sensory range was very broad, spanning almost all the way to the very back of the Skycourt Kingdom's army. Thus, the Skycourt Kingdom's magicians could only retreat to the back of the army and look on helplessly as the Effer Kingdom's court magicians slaughtered their allied foot soldiers.

Gilgen knew that even though his army temporarily held a numbers advantage, this advantage would quickly be erased if the barrage of spells from the Effer Kingdom's side were allowed to continue any longer. In fact, the state of the battlefield was already almost in dire straits for his army.

"Weren't you just reminding Jenkins's daughter that one has to pay attention on the battlefield? Why are you suddenly looking around and allowing yourself to get distracted now?" King Cameron asked with an amused smile as he seized an opportunity to lash out with his sword, piercing through Gilgen's sleeve and inflicting a gash onto his ribs.

Gilgen couldn't help but wince in pain as he hurriedly stumbled back in retreat while swatting King Cameron's sword aside. Immediately thereafter, he glanced down at the wound that he had just sustained, but thankfully, it was just a shallow gash that only ran skin-deep.

Gilgen had thought that his swordsmanship was unmatched in this world, but his lofty opinion of himself had changed after clashing with King Cameron. "Drunken Youth" was a sword technique that he had been hiding for many years, and throughout all of his years as a general, no one had ever been able to force him to reveal it. However, even such a complex and ever-changing sword technique was unable to land so much as a single scratch on King Cameron, and Gilgen couldn't help but feel slightly fearful toward this unfathomably powerful ruler of the Effer Kingdom. At the same time, his unwavering confidence in his army's ability to secure victory in this battle had also been shaken.

Just as he was scrambling to think of a way to dig himself out of this hole, his woes were compounded even further by what happened next.

All of a sudden, a massive cloud of dust began to rise up from the southeastern side of the battlefield. It was clear that more troops had arrived, and the countless thundering horse hooves were like drumsticks that were pounding the giant drum that was the Marrod Plain.

Gilgen immediately cast his gaze toward Cameron, yet to his surprise, the expression on Cameron's face was also one of bewilderment. He had thought that these were Effer Kingdom troops that had been lying in ambush to the southeast of Illingburn Fort, but judging from Cameron's reaction, it was clear that the arrival of these troops was quite unexpected to him as well.

Thus, both of them stopped what they were doing and descended outside the battlefield to peer carefully into the oncoming dust cloud, trying to see who exactly the approaching forces were.

Even the perpetually calm and steadfast Count Friar was left scratching his head, wondering how a unit of troops had suddenly appeared on the southeastern side of the plain.

Standing atop the city wall of Illingburn Fort, Prince Lazaar was displaying much the same reaction as he hurriedly picked up his monocular before looking through it with a bewildered expression.

For those like them, who stood at lofty positions, danger most often came in the form of the unknown and the unexpected.

...

Amid the cloud of dust, a man and a woman were the first to emerge on horseback.

The woman had a head of dancing silver hair, and she was rushing along the plain like a shooting star with breathtaking beauty and unmatched determination. Her gorgeous figure was concealed under a pristine white robe, and as she galloped along on horseback, she gave off the appearance of a dashing heroine rushing in to save the day.

As for the man, he was wearing a purple magician's robe, and his curly hair had been completely swept behind his ears by the fierce wind. Even looking from afar, one could still clearly see his handsome and flawless side profile. His jawline formed an intricate arc from the tip of his chin to the bottom of his ear, and one could easily be forgiven for being momentarily mesmerized by his dashing figure. However, for some reason, his complexion was looking a little pale.

On the southeastern city wall of Illingburn Fort, two women were also watching the arrival of this unexpected unit with keen interest.

"So he came in the end, after all." Lana set down the monocular in her hands as she slowly closed her eyes. In the instant that she caught sight of that handsome purple-robed figure, her heart had completely sunk, while her breathing had involuntarily accelerated. She had prayed countless times to the heavens for Erwin to keep away from this battlefield, but in the end, it seemed that her prayers had fallen upon deaf ears.

In contrast, Mistress Faye was very relaxed, and she turned to Lana with an intrigued expression as she asked, "So that's Erwin, is it?" 

Lana nodded in response with a calm expression.

"What are you going to do about him later?" The smile on Mistress Faye's face became more pronounced as she looked at the calm facade that Lana was striving to maintain. "Are you going to kill him or try to keep him alive?"

She had thought that Lana would placate her with some halfhearted answer, but to her surprise, Lana had gotten so caught up in her own thoughts that she didn't even appear to have heard the question.

Mistress Faye intentionally put on a menacing expression as she said, "I think it would be best to kill him. Look at how he's riding together with the princess. I'm sure their relationship is a very close and intimate one. How about I kill them both for you later so you won't have to see them together ever again?"

"Teacher..." Only then did Lana return to her senses, and she clearly knew that Mistress Faye was just joking around with her, but she still couldn't help but react.

"So what'll it be? Are you going to kill him, or are you going to keep him alive? You still haven't answered me," Mistress Faye said with a cold smile.

"Just leave those two to me, Teacher. You can focus on dealing with Master Piro and the others," Lana said with a cunning smile.

"If you want to keep him alive, then just tell me," Faye said as she gave Lana a displeased glance. "What kind of spell did that boy cast on you? You've fallen for him so completely that you can't even help yourself!"

Lana stuck out her tongue in a cheeky manner, but deep down, she was wrestling with a difficult dilemma.

He's lost a lot of weight. It looks like this journey hasn't been an easy one for him, she couldn't help but think to herself.

...

Looking at the approaching silver-haired woman, a hint of pride appeared on Cameron's face, but that pride was also intermingled with concern. When it came to the state of the battle, it was obviously fantastic for the morale of the Effer Kingdom's army that their princess was coming to reinforce them with allied troops. However, Cameron was more concerned about his daughter's injuries. After all, prior to setting off, he recalled that Onean had still been in very bad condition, and he couldn't help but wonder how she had managed to make it all the way here.

Furthermore, he also had other reasons for deciding to leave Onean behind at Sarus. If something were to go wrong in this battle, order could still be maintained in the royal court by the intelligent and capable princess. However, now that Onean had arrived on the front lines, the only royals left in Sarus were his other children, who were far less capable of taking his place. Thus, if any unforeseen mishaps were to occur during this war, the Cameron Family could very easily be dethroned as the royal family of the Effer Kingdom.

However, he hadn't clearly articulated all of this to Onean prior to his departure. After all, she was still recovering from very severe injuries at the time, and he didn't want to burden her with unnecessary stress. Most importantly, never did he think that Onean would be such a go-getter that she would come to the front lines on her own, and in addition to that, she had even brought her own unit of troops with her.

What was very perplexing to him was that he hadn't heard any news of Onean being sighted on the way to the front lines, so she had to have traveled in an extremely secretive manner. As such, Cameron had been caught completely off guard, and he was both elated and concerned.

In contrast, Master Piro was looking very pleased to see his prized disciple here, but in reality, he was merely hiding his concern so that it wouldn't be displayed outwardly.

Professor Hawk could see that Erwin was charging at the forefront, and his first reaction upon seeing this was to cast his gaze toward Count Friar from afar. To his surprise, not only was Count Friar looking very calm and composed, there was even a faint smile on his face. However, unbeknownst to Professor Hawk, Count Friar's grip around the shaft of his spear had tightened involuntarily.

Atop the city wall of Illingburn Fort not far behind Count Friar.

"Her Highness sure chose a good time to be making her entrance on the battlefield," Prince Lazaar said as he looked on at the dust cloud raised by the 5,000 royal cavaliers.

"Where did they come from?" Sirius asked with a bemused expression.

"They most likely traveled along the coast of the Joffan Sea from the south," Lazaar replied. "Look at the royal cavaliers following her, they're the very same ones who were sent to reinforce Xeto under the two dukes a few days ago."

"It's incredible that not only was she able to sneak out of the royal palace without any noticing, she even made it all the way to the front lines!" Sirius said with a surprised expression.

"The princess is definitely no slouch, that's for sure," Lazaar praised in a slightly begrudging manner. "She must've figured out that this war is not as simple as it seems on the surface. Otherwise, she wouldn't have come all this way while carrying such severe injuries."

"But the fact that she did come indicates that she's still not intelligent enough. If she had stayed in Sarus instead, she would've been able to pose more trouble to our plan," Sirius said.

"If you ask me, it's all the same no matter what she does. What do you think?" Prince Lazaar asked as he turned to Sirius with a confident smile.

"I suppose you're right." Sirius nodded in response.

...

Meanwhile, Erwin and Onean were about to reach the battlefield, and they were also conversing with one another.

"We finally made it," Erwin sighed while galloping along on horseback by Onean's side. Thinking back to all of the road and bridge repairs they had done the previous night, Erwin felt like he never wanted to see a bridge ever again. Those vile Skycourt Kingdom mercenaries were extremely fortunate that Erwin and Onean hadn't caught up to them. Otherwise, they would've been left to regret ever being born into this world!

"Your complexion is not looking very good," Onean said as she turned to take a glance at him.

"I'm exhausted from the past two days of travel."

"In that case, you should hide at the back of the army. Once we enter the battlefield, I may not be able to protect you," Onean said in an indifferent voice.

"Just make sure you don't need me to save you, Your Highness," Erwin jibed in response.

Onean took a glance at him, then turned to face the battlefield again as she raised a hand up high. "Everyone, spread out into your formations!"

The 5,000 royal cavaliers immediately did as they were told, adopting a charging formation before rushing toward the flank of the Skycourt Kingdom's army.

Meanwhile, Erwin began to slow down and drop to the back of the army. At the same time, he turned around and yelled, "Sherry, lead our martial artists to charge alongside the royal cavaliers! Lanyon, come with me, we need to find a place where our magicians can attack from!"

After receiving Erwin's orders, Sherry and Lanyon immediately passed on the instructions to the rest of the Four Winds mercenary legion.

"I'm going on ahead!" Kaiba's spear was raised in front of him, and he rushed past Erwin like the wind atop his trusty steed. Before Erwin had a chance to react, Kaiba had already left him far behind, leaving only a trail of boisterous laughter in his wake.