"It's time to leave," Erwin said as he appeared beside Onean using a space split technique.

Onean had fully entered her element and was intent on striking down Aiden, so she wasn't very pleased for Erwin to suddenly barge in like this.

"Most of the city guards are already dead. We have to go," Erwin urged in a grim voice.

Onean was naturally aware that the city guards were nothing more than cannon fodder, but her hope was that the city guards would be able to last long enough for her to strike down Aiden and intimidate the Burmen army into retreat. However, that was never a realistic hope to begin with, and the cruel reality was quickly dawning on her.

"If you die here, that would be exactly what Lazaar wants to see, and all hope will be lost," Erwin said.

Onean finally calmed down upon hearing this.

"I'll get Christine to drive the airship into the sky above the royal palace. You should go with her as well. Pack up all of your necessary belongings and get out of here."

"And then? Where are we going after that?" Onean asked as she turned to look at him.

Erwin was momentarily stumped by this question, even though it was quite a simple one.

Indeed, where could she go after this? If Sarus were to fall, the fall of the Effer Kingdom would soon follow. In that case, she would become the princess of a defunct royal family.

"Are you saying that you want to defend Sarus to your death then?"

"That's not my intention," Onean replied without any hesitation.

"They've already been preparing for this for many years. There's no way those useless city guards can oppose them. Hurry up and get onto the airship. The important thing right now is that you survive and keep the legacy of the Cameron Family alive," Erwin consoled in a sincere yet firm voice.

Right at this moment, Prime Minister Fuller arrived on the scene with the rest of the city guards and royal guards.

Thus, a new wave of war cries rang out from the street.

"Protect Her Highness!" Fuller charged headfirst into the fray with a torch raised high above his own head, followed by the soldiers that he had brought with him.

Onean looked at Fuller from afar with tightly furrowed brows, and a complex look appeared in her eyes.

Meanwhile, Archbishop Sirius was hiding on the second floor of one of the buildings on the side of the street. Realistically speaking, there was only one possible outcome for this battle, so he had been watching with detachment and disinterest. However, a hint of approval appeared in his eyes at the sight of Fuller's arrival, and it was clear that he was very impressed with Fuller's ploy.

In order to avoid suspicion, you have to put on a convincing act. Looks like you've figured out what kind of man Lazaar is, Sirius thought to himself.

"You think you can just come and go as you please? Do you think I'd just watch and let you do whatever you want?" Aiden asked with a wry smile. His attention had been drawn momentarily to the forces that had been led onto the scene by Fuller, but upon realizing that it was only more cannon fodder, he turned his gaze back to Onean again.

He swept his halberd through the air, leaving a bright trail in its wake that lit up the night sky, and the dazzling light was brimming with killing intent. After sweeping his halberd through the air one more time, several dozen bursts of light that resembled radiant blue stars were sent hurtling directly toward Onean.

Right as Erwin was about to conjure up his light shield to ward off these lethal stars, Onean raised a hand to stop him.

"I'll take care of this." She opened her golden eyes up wide as she spoke, then gripped tightly onto her staff with both hands. Countless rays of light that resembled thin needles quickly appeared around her, then began to converge toward the tip of her staff.

Aiden could feel the matter around him being rapidly converted into magic energy, and he was rather taken aback by this observation. He knew that Onean couldn't have had much time to rest after returning to Sarus, so he wasn't expecting her to have already recovered so much magic power.

With such a massive amount of energy converging at once, bursts of magic turbulence were inevitably swept up around Onean. As a result, the skirt of her dress was billowing up and down incessantly, fully exposing her smooth and delicate legs for Erwin's viewing pleasure.

Thankfully, the light on the tip of the staff was so bright that it was impossible to look directly at it, and she was situated very high up in the sky, so the soldiers that were locked in battle on the street down below were unable to catch a clear glimpse of her. Thus, Erwin was the only one treated to this exclusive show as he was standing not far away from Onean, and he certainly wasn't going to squander this opportunity.

He was watching the oncoming stars while secretly observing how Onean was trying to get the skirt of her dress to behave by squeezing it between her legs, and he couldn't help but be impressed by her multi-tasking abilities.

Onean didn't even have to look at Erwin to know where his gaze was focused on. However, she had to focus the entirety of her attention on casting her spell, so she was unable to do anything about his perverted tendencies.

All of a sudden, a dazzling golden dragon emerged in the night before letting loose a thunderous roar.

In that instant, the entire city of Sarus was roused from its slumber.

At this point, it had already become clear to all of the city's citizens that a battle was taking place in Sarus.

All of the people who were watching from the windows were too stunned to speak, and those who were lying on their beds, pretending to sleep, also had their attention drawn to the resplendent golden light shining outside their windows. They were unable to suppress their curiosity, so they also got out of their beds before making their way over to their windows to see what was happening outside.

The ferocious golden dragon that Onean had just summoned bore a strong resemblance to the golden dragon manifested by King Cameron's mighty sword, which made sense, considering she had the blood of the Cameron Family flowing through her veins.

The rapidly approaching blue stars were instantly devoured by the almighty golden dragon, and its eyes were glowing with unbridled fury as it glowered at Aiden.

Aiden wasn't expecting Onean to be hiding such a spell up her sleeve, but it wasn't enough to faze him, either.

Before the golden dragon had a chance to pounce, another figure leaped up from the airship before charging directly toward Aiden. The figure was wielding a spear, which was being aimed directly at Aiden with single-minded determination, and the wielder of the spear was none other than Kaiba.

Aiden's brows furrowed slightly as he retaliated with his halberd.

A loud clang rang out as the spear and the halberd clashed, and Aiden was able to swat away Kaiba's all-out attack with ease. At this point, Kaiba had already built up too much momentum, so he was unable to stop himself after his spear was swatted aside, and as a result, he was struck by a kick to the chest from Aiden, sending him flying back toward the airship.

A flurry of fireballs immediately descended from the airship, forcing back Aiden so that he was unable to pursue Kaiba.

Erwin cast his gaze toward the airship, upon which he discovered that the storm of fireballs had been unleashed by Gwen.

He knew that through his actions, Kaiba was telling him that it was time for him and Onean to leave.

Before Erwin had a chance to say anything, Onean instructed, "You get out of here first. I'll hold them off for now, and I'll meet up with you at the royal palace."

Erwin could see that she was quite confident, and he could sense the vast magic energy that had been imbued into the ferocious golden dragon. Thus, he nodded in response, then unleashed a space split technique without any hesitation to appear on the deck of the airship in the blink of an eye.

"Brother Erwin!" Christine immediately pounced onto Erwin in excitement as soon as he landed on the airship's deck.

Erwin was rather taken aback by her enthusiasm. After all, they had just met several days ago, so he wasn't expecting such excitement from her.

"Christine, drive the airship to the royal palace. After I grab some things from there, we'll be ready to leave the city," Erwin instructed as he patted her on the back.

"Alright, you can count on me!" Christine knew that the situation was quite urgent, so she immediately did as she was told.

After that, Erwin turned toward Sherry, who was standing on the street below, then yelled, "Sherry, go and tell Lanyon and the others to get to the royal palace right away. Also, don't forget about those chests in the storage room."

"Got it!" Sherry took one of the city guards' horses, then began to race through the inner city.

Erwin shifted his gaze back to the deck of the airship, just in time to see Kaiba clambering to his feet with some difficulty. He had only come to a rest after barreling through several wooden columns, and the hint of concern in Gwen's eyes as she looked at Kaiba didn't escape Erwin's notice.

"What are you still standing around here for? Get out of here!" Kaiba said in an urgent voice.

"We'd leave if we could, but Aiden wouldn't let us, and there's not much I can do," Erwin said in a resigned manner.

"It's a good thing I'm wearing this Falcon Beak Lizard scale armor. Otherwise, that kick could've caused some serious damage," Kaiba said while dusting himself off, and blood began to trick down from the corners of his mouth.

"Are you alright?" Erwin asked in an alarmed voice.

"I'm fine. I probably just sustained some internal injuries," Kaiba replied as he wiped away the blood from his lips. "Man, these bastards from the Lazaar Family are all monsters!"

"So what are you planning to do now?" Erwin asked as he shifted his gaze toward Gwen, who was standing behind Kaiba.

"What do you mean?" Kaiba asked with a puzzled expression.

"We definitely won't be able to stay in Sarus anymore, so what do we do from here? If we're going to run away on this airship, we have to have a target, right?"

"What were you and Her Highness planning?" Kaiba asked.

"Don't turn the question back on me. Let me ask you this: are you sure you want to come with us?" Erwin asked as he looked into Kaiba's eyes. "It could be very dangerous for you if you choose to come with us."

Kaiba thought about this in silence for a moment, then turned to Gwen with a smile as he said, "I'll go wherever she goes."

Gwen pretended not to have heard him as she turned her face away and looked out at the night sky. Erwin took a closer glance at her to find that her complexion had improved significantly compared with several days ago, but there seemed to be a permanent crease of concern between her brows.

"So now you have the courage to profess your love to her? What were you doing before this war?" Erwin jibed as he looked at Kaiba with an amused expression.

"I want to return to Fooz," Gwen suddenly said in a quiet voice as she turned back to face Erwin and Kaiba.

Erwin faltered slightly upon hearing this, then nodded in response.

"Once we leave Sarus, I don't know when or if we'll be back again, so if you have any important belongings, make sure you go home and grab them now. Otherwise, you won't get another opportunity," Erwin cautioned.

"What is there to bring aside from money?" Kaiba asked.

As for Gwen, she merely shook her head in silence, expressing through her actions that she had nothing she needed to get from home.

As the governor of Fooz, Jenkins had overseen all of the mines in the province for many years, so he was undoubtedly an extremely wealthy man. With such a massive estate, there was naturally no way that all of his wealth would be kept in Sarus, so Erwin could only assume that most of his estate was still back in Fooz.

...

This was the most chaotic night that Sarus had gone through in the past few decades. 

There was a clash between two armies, the emergence of an almighty golden dragon, and the arrival of an airship.

As the airship arrived in the sky above the royal palace, which was situated at the center of Sarus, Erwin discovered that the palace had already descended into complete chaos. It was completely different from the royal palace that he had seen last time. The servants of the palace were rushing around in a blind panic while carrying the precious objects in the palace crafted from gold and silver, and some of the more brazen ones were already beginning to fight over the more valuable items. There wasn't a single guard left in the royal palace as all of them were fighting the Burmen army, so there was no one to maintain order in the palace.