Prince Lazaar looked on with a cold expression as Cameron bade farewell to Onean, and the thought of the horrific state that Jeff was in flashed through his mind, striking him with the uncontrollable urge to strike down Onean as an act of vengeance for his own son. However, right as he was about to raise his sword, a burst of golden radiance surged toward him from behind.

Even though King Cameron was close to being a spent force, he wasn't going to allow anyone to try and harm his own daughter in his presence.

Lazaar turned around to defend himself against the burst of golden sword intent, and by then, Onean and Erwin had already sped into the distance. He knew that his top priority right now was to take care of Cameron, so he raised his Bai Ze sword and waved it toward the southern encampment. Upon receiving this signal, all of the white-armored priests of the church immediately parted to open up a wide path down the center. The troops of Burmen behind them were already raring to go, and waves of thunderous cheers instantly erupted as they spotted an opportunity for them to rejoin the battle.

"Long live, Lord Lazaar! Long live, Lord Lazaar! Long live, Lord Lazaar!" The soldiers of Burmen had already adopted their formations, and the foot soldiers were prepared to charge.

At this point, the reserve army of the Effer Kingdom was already severely ravaged and riddled with lifeless bodies. After a few rounds of scorching dragon flames, the reserve army had been reduced from around 30,000 troops to less than 5,000. Even though Onean was already fleeing toward the southeast, King Cameron and Count Friar were still remaining on the battlefield. Looking at the determined gleam in the eyes of their two commanders, all of the remaining soldiers of the Effer Kingdom drew upon the final reserves of strength in their bodies and steeled themselves for one last battle.

There were still over 20 flying dragons left on the battlefield, and they had been circling around in the sky above the reserve army prior to this, but since then, they had been led toward the southeastern battlefield by Aiden. Aiden's objective wasn't to hunt down Erwin and Onean. Instead, his main goal was to wipe out the remaining troops of the Effer Kingdom. Furthermore, after almost falling to his demise against Erwin's new moons, he was feeling quite fearful. If he were to pursue Erwin and Onean, only for the former to unleash that spell again, he would perhaps be able to escape, but these flying dragons were all going to be killed.

If the remaining flying dragons were to perish, then the state of this battle would become quite murky again. Aiden didn't dare to take such a risk, so he decided not to go after Erwin and Onean.

Meanwhile, Erwin rode through the shattered wall of ice on horseback alongside the bodies of Master Piro and Professor Hawk, and Onean was flying not far in the air above him, while Aiden's flight of dragons were letting loose almighty roars behind them.

The 20,000 or so troops who had retreated to the southeastern coastline had been waiting behind the wall of ice this entire time, and now that the wall of ice had been shattered, they could see that Onean was fleeing from the battlefield, while King Cameron was still trapped on the southern battlefield. This was already enough to tell them what the state of the battle was like, and just like the reserve troops of the Effer Kingdom, they also steeled themselves for one final battle.

"Protect Her Highness! Save His Majesty!" The commander of the soldiers raised his longsword and led from the front, charging toward the southern battlefield without any hesitation. With him setting such a courageous example, all of the royal cavaliers and royal foot soldiers behind him immediately followed suit, charging toward the southern battlefield amid waves of thunderous war cries.

Onean looked down with a dazed expression as the fearless soldiers down below charged headfirst into the scorching dragon flames, and she was feeling extremely ashamed. These soldiers were laying down their lives for the kingdom without so much as a second thought, while she was fleeing for her life, and the thought of that filled her with shame.

"What are you doing, idiot? We need to get out of here!" Erwin roared in an urgent voice up at the dazed Onean.

Onean turned to him with a furious look in her golden eyes, and he glared right back at her without backing down in the slightest.

In the end, it was Onean who conformed. She knew that Erwin was right. Just as her father had said, her death on this battlefield would be completely futile.

"We need to get the hell out of here! Once those flying dragons are finished with everyone else and start coming after us, we'll be screwed!" Out of the chaos of the battlefield emerged Kaiba with the dozens of mercenaries that still remained of their mercenary legion, reuniting with their deputy legion commander.

Erwin cast his gaze toward the ragged bunch of mercenaries, and he heaved a long sigh of relief upon spotting Kaiba, Sherry, Lanyon, and Georgina among them. He knew that Kaiba wasn't going to lead everyone to their deaths. Looking at the surviving martial artists of the mercenary legion, he discovered that most of them were wearing suits of Falcon Beak Lizard scale armor, so it seemed that these suits of armor really were very useful in battle.

"You ride this horse, this one's faster," Erwin said to Onean after she landed on the ground. He knew that his father's steed was a Zam highland horse of the highest pedigree.

Erwin then got down from the horse before clambering onto his own horse, carrying Professor Hawk's body with him.

"I'm impressed, Lanyon. I can't believe you still had the wherewithal to look after my hose on such a chaotic battlefield," Erwin praised in a genuine voice while panting heavily. He really didn't have much strength left in him in his current condition, and just the act of hoisting Professor Hawk's body onto the back of his horse was enough to leave him sweating profusely. After that, he rummaged through the sheepskin bag attached to the saddle, and he was relieved to find that both of his books were still in there.

A wry smile appeared on Lanyon's face, and he wondered how Erwin could still be making jokes at a time like this.

Georgina made his way over to Erwin to ask if he should relinquish his unicorn steed to Onean, a suggestion which Erwin thought about, but ultimately decided against in the end. That grumpy unicorn was extremely short-tempered with everyone aside from Georgina, and he was worried that it would buck Onean off its back.

"Oh my goodness, can we stop wasting time already? Let's get the hell out of here!" Kaiba's urgency and frustration were about to boil over.

Erwin turned to Onean to check on her, and he discovered that her complexion was as pale as a ghost, and her eyes were completely hollow, but all that mattered was that she had already climbed onto the back of the horse. Thus, he immediately yelled, "Let's go!"

Thus, the Four Winds mercenary legion sped along the southern coastline in a long line. The sound of a brutal battle was ringing out behind them, but they remained completely expressionless and unmoved. It was only just beginning to approach noon, but having spent half a day on that hellish battlefield, everyone felt as if the morning was an eternity ago.

They had come here with unbridled excitement and lofty aspirations, but they were now fleeing with dejected hearts and shattered egos.

...

Standing atop the back of one of the flying dragons, Aiden was looking down at the oncoming troops of the Effer Kingdom with a slightly surprised expression. Don't they know that they're charging to their deaths? Are they not afraid of these pure dragon flames?

He had thought that these soldiers would flee toward the south alongside Onean, but to his surprise, it was as if all of them had a death wish, and they were charging directly toward the battlefield below the flying dragons. Aiden admired them for their courage and loyalty, but that didn't mean that he was going to spare them. With a gentle pat on the dragon's neck, another plume of dragon flames was sent raining down from above.

As the dragon flames slaughtered the remaining troops of the Effer Kingdom, the soldiers of Burmen also began their charge.

Cameron cast his gaze toward the horrific slaughter taking place on the southeastern battlefield, then turned to look at the formidable soldiers of the Burmen that were rushing onto the scene. His face was completely devoid of color, and even though his death was all but sealed, there was no fear in his eyes whatsoever. Instead, a derisive sneer appeared on his face.

"Looks like the two of us are going to die here today, old pal," Cameron said as he raised his Wish sword and pointed it toward the south.

"Indeed, Your Majesty." Count Friar also wore a nonchalant smile as he tightened his grip around the shaft of his own spear. "I've always told you that Master Donson is nothing more than a rambling scam artist, but you never believed me. Do you believe me now?"

"Haha, you're such a petty old bastard. We're about to die, and you're still badmouthing Master Donson," Cameron chuckled in response, but his laughter quickly turned into a wince as he had aggravated his injury while chuckling. "Besides, both of our children managed to escape, so how do you know that Master Donson's prophecy won't eventually come true?"

Friar thought about this for a moment, then nodded in response. "I suppose you're right."

That afternoon, the battle on the Marrod Plain finally drew to a glorious conclusion.

Even near death, Cameron was still as formidable as ever, raking through the enemy ranks with his Wish sword, but in the end, he was still slain by Lazaar's Bai Ze blade. Friar also went down fighting next to Cameron, ultimately falling to Aiden's Halberd. All the while, Mistress Faye looked into the distance from the top of the city wall, lamenting the passing of perhaps the only romantic interest of her life. Similarly, Lana was also looking far into the southeast. She was still situated on the battlefield, but her heart had already drifted away with someone else.

After the battle, the lame and hobbling Gilgen picked up a bloody head, then retreated back to the territory of the Skycourt Kingdom with what little remained of his forces. In the end, he was able to bring back the head of King Cameron to the Skycourt Kingdom, just as he had set out to do from the very beginning.

Archbishop Sirius had been watching with indifference from the top of the city wall this entire time, and even as he witnessed the decapitation of King Cameron, not a single hint of emotion appeared in his eyes.

"All of you will pay the price for interfering with the descent of our almighty lord," he said in a cold voice.

...

The light of the dying sun shone down upon the battlefield, basking the mountains of corpses in a forlorn glow. The crows and ravens circling around in the sky were eager to begin their feast, and if it weren't for the fact that the soldiers of Burmen were still cleaning up the battlefield, the birds would've already swooped onto the delectable buffet down below. As always, the mountains around Illingburn Fort observed in silence and indifference. The dusk on this day seemed to be no different from that of the previous day.

"Have all of those mercenaries been cleaned up as well?" Lazaar asked as he cast his gaze toward the severely ravaged Marrod Plain.

"Yes, Father," Aiden replied with a nod.

"Who could've anticipated that His Majesty would have a trump card up his sleeve? I certainly didn't think that there would be so many mercenaries hiding in the barracks inside the city," Sirius mused.

"He probably wanted to attack us from both sides, but in the end, our trump card proved to be superior to his," Lazaar said in an indifferent voice.

As it turned out, Cameron had hidden all of the mercenaries that had accompanied the regular army in the barracks, and his plan was to unleash them as a surprise unit during the final battle against Lazaar. However, no one could've anticipated that Lazaar would be able to recruit dragons to their army. Even though the mercenaries were still unleashed by Cameron as a surprise attack in the end, they were only able to have a very minor impact on the battle.

After the battle outside of the city drew to a conclusion, the mercenaries inside the city were no match for the elite forces of Burmen, and they didn't last very long before they were completely wiped out.

"Cameron is dead, but there's still a problem, which is that we let Onean escape. If she manages to return to Sarus, everyone will hear about how you betrayed the kingdom and slew the king," Sirius said with a concerned expression.