Before the battle had erupted in the eastern part of the city, the palace servants still had sufficient discipline to remain at their posts. However, as soon as the battle broke out, they knew that the soldiers of Burmen had managed to infiltrate the city, and their first reaction was to grab everything they could from the royal palace before running for their lives.

However, they were already quite late to make their escape. Onean's brothers and sisters had already left the royal palace for sanctuary as soon as her royal decree was released on the city's bulletin boards.

Even as the massive airship landed on the spacious lawn in front of the main palace, no one approached it to investigate. However, its arrival did scare away a couple of palace servants, who were fighting over several silver wine flagons.

Erwin disembarked from the airship before picking up the silver wine flagons that were scattered on the ground, then cast his gaze toward the pair of fleeing palace servants with a cold smile. After that, he turned around to look behind him, upon which he discovered that many of the side palaces had already fallen completely dark, and many of the Nightglow Stones on either side of the palatial paths had already been taken.

"Is this the royal palace of the Effer Kingdom?" Christine asked as she also disembarked from the airship, then swept her gaze across the chaotic scenes unfolding around her. As someone with no attachment to the Effer Kingdom, she naturally wasn't feeling any sorrow at the sight of all of this.

"It is. Look at how bleak and desolate everything has become. A month ago, no one would've been able to imagine this," Erwin sighed with a forlorn expression.

"It's alright, Brother Erwin, don't be sad. Life is always unpredictable," Christine consoled.

"What do I have to be sad about? It's not like I lived here or anything," Erwin chuckled in amusement.

"Well, doesn't Princess Onean live here? I thought you were feeling sad for her," Christine said.

"I'm not such a sentimental person," Erwin said in an indifferent voice.

"Really?" Christine asked as she turned to look at him with a curious expression.

Erwin offered no response.

A short while later, Sherry, Lanyon, and the remaining mercenaries of the Four Winds mercenary legion arrived with the metal chests full of Loonies. There was quite some distance from the royal palace to the western part of the inner city, so they had to have expended a lot of energy to get the chests here so quickly.

Shortly thereafter, Kaiba also arrived with a large chest on his back. It was clear that he had been in quite a hurry, so he didn't get a chance to pack much money and valuable objects.

While everyone was loading their luggage onto the airship, Erwin cast a concerned glance toward the eastern part of the city. Despite the confidence that Onean had displayed, Erwin was still feeling quite worried about leaving her to deal with someone as powerful as Aiden on her own. In addition to that, Aiden also had Lana's assistance. Lana was naturally always willing to protect Erwin, but she had no sympathy for Onean.

Even from half a city away, he could still clearly see the dazzling radiance being given off by the mighty golden dragon, and that was quite a relieving sight to him.

"We're preparing to set off, Brother Erwin," Christine said as she made her way toward him.

Erwin nodded in response, but his gaze was still fixed on the east.

All of a sudden, a deafening draconic roar rang out, and a burst of light erupted into the sky as a pillar of golden dragon flames surged through the air. Immediately thereafter, violent tremors began to run through the ground, and the tremors were quite severe, even in the royal palace, which was quite far away. It was most likely the case that the entire eastern section of the outer city had already been razed to the ground.

"Launch the airship into the sky! She's about to get here soon," Erwin said to Christine.

As soon as his voice trailed off, a burst of golden light arrived in the blink of an eye, and the mighty golden dragon was already circling around in the sky above the royal palace. As for Onean, she was hovering directly above the head of the golden dragon with one hand holding her staff behind her, while her other hand was continuing to inject magic power into the spell.

Her golden eyes were particularly bright in the night, and Erwin couldn't help but wonder just how many spells he hadn't seen before were hidden up her sleeve. He had thought that the sea of fire she had summoned in the sky above the battlefield on the Marrod Plain was already the limit of her powers, but it seemed that her true limits laid somewhere beyond that.

Right as he was about to urge Onean to get onto the airship, a disheveled madman suddenly ran out of the dark main palace. Along the way, he was muttering unintelligible gibberish that almost sounded like another language entirely.

Erwin watched the deranged figure with a wary expression, preparing to fire a spell at him if required. However, to his surprise, the figure sped directly past him, then rushed over to a spot that was directly beneath the golden dragon before waving desperately up at Onean while yelling, "Your Highness, please listen to what I have to say! Do not despair! The state of the Effer Kingdom may be in shambles right now, but with each ending comes a new beginning. Do not lose hope, for hope is the spark that will ignite the flames of rebirth. You must make sure to preserve the bloodline of the Cameron Family, for the Cameron Family shall one day rule over the entire continent..."

Onean was rooted to the spot upon hearing this, unsure of how to react.

Erwin was also quite befuddled, wondering where this madman had suddenly come from. At a time like this, survival alone was already a difficult goal to achieve, let alone ruling over the entire continent.

"Is there anything you need to take with you? If not, then we're going to set off right away," Erwin yelled directly at Onean, paying no further heed to the rambling madman. However, he then immediately realized that his question had been rather insensitive and tone-deaf. What could she take with her? This entire kingdom was supposed to be hers, let alone this royal palace, but at a time like this, what could she take away?

Onean swept her gaze over the vast royal palace, and a dejected look appeared in her eyes.

Immediately thereafter, Aiden arrived on the scene. Judging from his disheveled hair and the smoke rising up from his suit of silver armor, it was clear that he hadn't had the easiest time dealing with the flames of the golden dragon.

Right after that, Lana also arrived, but she was completely unscathed. However, she was in no mood to be taking part in the unfolding battle, and even in the face of Onean, she was looking rather distracted and absentminded.

Onean's current mood was extremely sour, and it certainly didn't help her mood that she had to flee from the royal palace that was once her home in front of Aiden and Lana. Thus, she lashed out with her staff in order to vent her frustration and indignation.

Meanwhile, Erwin hurriedly gave Christine a hand signal, indicating for her to depart with the airship first.

Christine immediately did as she was told, running back to the steering wheel and controlling the airship so that it continued to rise in altitude while also traveling away from the royal palace. Due to the removed armor plating from the exterior of the airship, it had become a lot faster and more maneuverable, and it quickly reached an altitude in excess of 200 feet. Looking up at the airship from down below, it was only around the size of a thumbnail. Unfortunately, there wasn't anyone left down below to look up at the airship.

With a wave of Onean's staff, the golden dragon crashed directly toward Aiden and Lana with devastating force, causing even more of a commotion than the plume of dragon flames from earlier had. As a result, the entire city of Sarus began to tremble violently, and for the citizens of the city who were hiding in their homes, unless they had witnessed the golden dragon flying toward the royal palace, they would've definitely arrived at the false conclusion that an earthquake was taking place.

Right before Erwin was swept up by the shockwaves unleashed by the golden dragon, he unleashed his space split technique to vanish on the spot, but as soon as he reappeared beside Onean, he was sent flying by another powerful shockwave that was surging directly toward him.

Thankfully, he was able to react in time, grabbing onto Onean's wrist before quickly flying away, using the shockwave to assist in his acceleration.

By the time he drew to a halt, he discovered that Onean had already fallen unconscious. It was clear that she had either overexerted her own magic power, or been knocked unconscious by the enormous eruption of magic energy from her own spell.

He then turned around to look at the royal palace behind him, upon which he couldn't help but draw a sharp breath.

The entire palace had been destroyed!

The entire plot of land where the royal palace had once stood had been reduced to a massive crater, and all of the palaces had collapsed. Smoke and dust were rising up everywhere, and there was nothing but rubble as far as the eyes could see.

However, Erwin could see a glimmer of light beneath the rubble, so he knew that Lana had survived. With that in mind, he heaved an internal sigh of relief before setting off in pursuit of the airship up ahead.

Meanwhile, Lana let loose a delicate cry, and the magic energy that had formed a shield around her exploded to scatter all of the surrounding rubble. In the instant that the golden dragon came crashing down from above, Lana had activated the runes under the protective pendant that she wore around her neck. As a result, a burst of silver magic energy was released, revolving rapidly around her and Aiden to protect them from Onean's attack.

Unfortunately, the pendant was a single-use item, and the radiance glowing from it had completely faded, reducing it to a nondescript silver accessory.

Aiden looked up at the sky with tightly furrowed brows, and just as he was about to rise up from the ground and set off in pursuit, he was stopped by Lana.

"What's wrong?" Aiden asked as he turned toward Lana with a perplexed expression. "If we let Onean escape, the consequences could be catastrophic! She's already fallen unconscious after unleashing that spell, so this is the perfect chance to go after her. I can't afford to squander such a golden opportunity."

However, Lana continued to grab tightly onto his arm, refusing to let him go.

A displeased look appeared on Aiden's face as he looked at Lana.

"Do you think I'm not letting you go because I'm worried about Erwin?" Lana asked.

"Is that not the case?" Aiden asked in a displeased voice.

Lana shook her head in response. "Let me ask you this: do you have a way to deal with Erwin's time and space magic? Have you forgotten about the spell that he used to push everyone to the brink of death on the Marrod Plain?"

"I don't know anything about time and space magic, but I can tell that the spell he used that time isn't something that he can just use at will," Aiden said.

"That may be true, but I'm confident that if you give chase now, he'll definitely be able to use it," Lana said in an assured voice.

"Why is that? How can you be so sure?" Aiden asked with a perplexed expression.

"His mental state is very different from normal," Lana replied in a serious voice. Given how sharp and intelligent she was, she had already managed to guess that Erwin had to receive some type of mental stimulus before he was able to unleash that pair of peculiar "new moons".

Aiden thought carefully about the situation before deciding to trust Lana's judgment and refrain from giving chase. After all, he knew that there was no way that he could know Erwin as well as Lana did.

Meanwhile, Erwin descended onto the airship's deck with Onean in his arms.

He looked down at the city of Sarus below the airship, and he couldn't help but feel a little dejected at the fact that he didn't know when he would be able to return again.

Onean's head was resting against his chest, and she slowly awakened from her unconscious state as she listened to his heartbeat. She then also looked down at the city of Sarus under the night sky, and both of them became absorbed in their own thoughts.

She thought back to Fuller's actions, and she could tell that his identity was most likely not so simple. With that in mind, a faint smile appeared on her face. Even though she would no longer be present in Sarus, it seemed that Lazaar would still have quite a full plate dealing with Fuller.