The first wave of falling stars was already close to reaching the ground, and the magicians of both kingdoms were already raising magic shields with all their might, but unfortunately for them, Mistress Faye's spell was simply too powerful. Ordinary magic shields were completely incapable of warding off her terrifying spell, and massive holes were instantly punched into the clusters of magic shields up above.

"Raise your shields!" The same command was issued by the generals of both kingdoms to their troops upon seeing this, but the effect was downright negligible.

Right at this moment, a figure was seen speeding along on horseback, traversing through the chaotic battlefield with reckless abandon. The soldiers of both kingdoms around him were already fleeing in all directions to evade Mistress Faye's formidable spell, yet this figure seemed to have no fear of the stars falling from above as he continued to gallop along the battlefield.

"Get out of there, Kaiba! What the hell are you doing?" Erwin yelled in a frantic voice at the horse-riding figure.

However, his words of caution fell upon deaf ears. Kaiba seemed to be desperately searching for something on the battlefield, completely ignoring the stars that were about to fall upon him.

After failing to find what he was looking for with a rough glance, he sprang down from his horse and began to rush along the battlefield on foot while clawing through the mounds of corpses around him. His heart was beating so violently that he felt as if it were about to burst through his chest at any moment, and he was in such a panic that he couldn't even tell if his own hands were actually clawing through the bodies or simply trembling uncontrollably. Even so, he still showed no signs of giving up. He was sweating profusely, and he couldn't even tell whether the moisture in his eyes was sweat or tears, but he knew that he absolutely had to find the person that he was searching for.

Meanwhile, Erwin looked on from the side with a surprised expression as Kaiba tore through the mounds of bodies like a desperate wild animal. Never had he seen Kaiba lose his composure to this degree before.

Thankfully, his efforts paid off in the end, and he finally found a woman in an ochre dress lying on a certain corner of the battlefield. He pounced onto her with elation, shielding the unconscious woman with his own body as he panted heavily while a wave of intense relief washed over him. He then looked up at the falling stars, which were seconds away from crushing him, yet there was no fear in his eyes whatsoever. Instead, a faint smile appeared on his face, and it seemed that even though he was going to be crushed to death soon, he would die content with no regrets so long as he could hold onto the woman in his arms.

Thunderous, rumbling booms rang out from all directions as the falling stars plummeted onto the Marrod Plain before exploding with devastating force, wiping out countless troops from both kingdoms. Immediately following the resounding booms came cries of agony and panic, and it was as if doomsday had suddenly arrived. In the blink of an eye, the entire Marrod Plain was riddled with countless giant craters, from within which thick smoke was rising up incessantly, and there were charred bodies everywhere. The bodies were so badly burned that it was impossible to tell which kingdom they were from.

A few drops of cold sweat began to flow down Erwin's forehead.

One of the falling stars was headed straight for Kaiba and Gwen, but thankfully, Erwin was able to react just in time, arriving in front of the two of them using a space split technique before conjuring up his light shield to save the duo just in time.

Just this single falling star alone made Erwin feel as if he were supporting the weight of a mountain above his head, and that was testament to just how fearsome Mistress Faye's magic power was.

"Have you gone insane?" Erwin yelled. The magic energy within the falling star was taking a long time to dissipate, so he had to continue supporting his light shield.

"It's all worth it for her," Kaiba said as he hugged the woman in his arms even tighter against his own chest.

Finally, the light shield absorbed all of the magic energy imbued within the falling star, and only then was Erwin able to turn around to look at Kaiba. 

"During the Pillow Sword Tournament, I could tell that you were looking at Gwen during her match against Lana. It looks like I was right to suspect something at the time," he said in an amused voice.

Kaiba offered no response, and the look on his face was so joyful and content that it looked as if he had just fulfilled his own greatest wish in life.

Erwin was very amused at the sight of Kaiba's enamored state. Who could've imagined that someone like Kaiba, who regularly frequented mansions and had courted countless hostesses, would fall so deeply in love with a woman?

On the southern end of the Marrod Plain, the troops there were far less affected by the storm of falling stars. After all, Faye didn't want to inflict too much damage upon Prince Lazaar's soldiers. Thus, Lana and Onean were able to keep out most of the falling stars with their magic shields, and as a result, neither Count Friar nor Prince Lazaar's forces suffered heavy casualties.

After witnessing how effective her first spell had been, Mistress Faye was eager for more, and she immediately began to release magic power through her fingertips, upon which more stars began to detach themselves from the night sky before falling toward the battlefield on the Marrod Plain.

However, a cold smile suddenly appeared on Piro's face upon seeing this, and he thought to himself, This is the moment I've been waiting for!

A dazzling halo began to spread through the air from the tip of his beechwood staff, and it was particularly bright under the night sky. In the blink of an eye, the halo expanded into a circular surface, resembling a massive jade plate that was glowing with white light as it hung between heaven and earth.

Magic power was surging rapidly out of Master Piro's body as a gust of fierce wind blew over his face, causing his head of white hair to dance in a wild and chaotic fashion. With the light being released by the spell that he had just unleashed, one could clearly see that his face had become extremely pale and wizened, but his eyes were as sharp and piercing as ever, and they were giving off radiant silver light.

A hint of concern appeared on Onean's face upon seeing this.

All of the stars falling from the heavens crashed violently onto the surface of the round plate as if they had plunged into a dazzling white lake, but even with so many devastatingly powerful stars falling upon the plate, they weren't able to stir up even a single ripple on the plate's still, mirror-like surface. This was no lake, it was a calm sea of light! No matter how powerful the storm of falling stars was, there was no way that it would be able to churn up an entire sea.

This time, it was Faye's turn to be surprised. She gradually arrived at the realization that all of the magic energy imbued within the storm of falling stars had been absorbed by this sea of light, which meant that aside from the first wave of falling stars, all of the magic power that she had expended in the rest of her spell was currently being absorbed by Piro's spell.

Prior to this, she had been wondering why Piro hadn't done anything when her spell was wreaking havoc upon the entire battlefield. As it turned out, he was waiting for her to fully commit her magic power to the spell. It was important to realize that the magic power expended to unleash the next few waves of falling stars was far more than what it took to unleash the first wave.

It was no wonder that Piro had done nothing to stop Faye from the very beginning and simply allowed her to take so many lives with that first wave of falling stars. His plan had always been to lure her into increasing her magic power output in the subsequent waves of attacks, thereby allowing him to strike back with this spell. If he had used this spell from the very beginning, then Faye would've conserved her own magic power and simply withdrawn her spell.

After realizing Piro's plan, Faye immediately put an end to her own spell, then cast her gaze toward the sea of light with tightly furrowed brows. She knew that a terrifying amount of magic energy was concealed beneath its calm and radiant surface. Without further injections of magic power, the dense purple clouds in the sky began to gradually dissipate, and the sky slowly returned to its original state.

"Let me give you a taste of your own magic," Master Piro said as he turned to stare intently at Faye with white light still radiating from his eyes. He gently brought down the beechwood staff in his hand, and the sea of light that he had summoned immediately flipped over 90 degrees, making it perpendicular to the ground, hanging in the sky like a bright moon.

However, this moon was fixated solely on Mistress Faye, with all of the rays of light it was releasing locked directly onto her. At this moment, the sea of light was more like a copper mirror that was reflecting the light of the heavens. Of course, at this point, the natural light in the sky was already completely being outshone by the stunning radiance being released from deep within the sea of light.

One falling star after another began to erupt out of the sea of light, and all of them hurtled directly toward Faye.

The two connected pyramids were instantly shattered by one of the falling stars.

"This is all you've got? You have to resort to using my own magic against me?" Faye scoffed with a cold smile as she grabbed onto her silver serpentine staff, which was hovering beside her hand. She then raised her staff before her while holding onto it with both hands, and the bright red eyes of the snake lit up once again, immediately following which a giant blue serpent emerged from the ground to protect her.

The enormous serpent's eyes were also glowing with a bright red gleam, and it flicked out its forked tongue before opening its cavernous mouth up wide, then swallowed all of the stars that were shooting out of the sea of light with ease. After that, it swiveled around, and the crimson light glowing from its eyes grew even significantly brighter as bolts of crimson lightning erupted out of its pupils, hurtling directly toward Count Friar and his troops.

Onean was situated closest to the action, and she could already sense that these were no ordinary bolts of lightning. Thus, she immediately conjured up several pillars of golden lightning, which intertwined with one another and combined as one in the blink of an eye. Thus, a massive golden net immediately took shape in front of the Effer Kingdom's reserve troops to shield them.

However, the bolts of crimson lightning pierced directly through the net of golden lightning, seemingly without encountering any impediment, and all of the soldiers who were struck by the crimson lightning were instantly transformed into a series of crystalline crimson statues. Even the looks of alarm and horror on their faces had been perfectly preserved.

These crystalline statues were then quickly reduced to chunks of shattered crystals upon being struck by the spears of Prince Lazaar's soldiers.

"Everyone, spread out! Make sure you spread yourselves out and look out for that crimson lightning!" Count Friar immediately commanded in a loud voice. He knew that if his troops were to continue to adopt such tightly packed formations, then they would be perfect targets for Faye's spell.

The commanders of Lazaar's forces were quite experienced, and as soon as they spotted Friar's soldiers spacing themselves out, they immediately sent a wave of foot soldiers to charge toward Friar's troops. However, that attack was quickly nullified by the calm and collected Count Friar.

In this tense situation, Count Friar's impressive acumen as a commander was put on full display. Lazaar's elite soldiers outnumbered his own by two to one, and his own troops had been afflicted by Faye's toxic mist, falling stars, and crimson lightning, yet even so, Lazaar's forces were still unable to tear through any of the defensive lines formed by the reserve soldiers under his command. These elite soldiers under Lazaar were adopting their renowned eight-man group formations that had reaped them brilliant success in the past, but they weren't able to gain any advantage against Count Friar and his troops.

Of course, part of the credit also had to go to Cameron for his assignment of troops prior to the commencement of the battle. On the surface, these 30,000 troops appeared to be reserve soldiers, but in reality, they were all elite soldiers of the Royal Guard, and they had been assigned here specifically to deal with Lazaar's forces.