Erwin cast his gaze toward Cheren, who had fallen onto the ground in the distance, and his face was completely devoid of emotion. On this occasion, he couldn't even be bothered to put on a derisive expression.

He then turned to glance at Theresa to see what kind of reaction she was displaying to this turn of events, but to his surprise, it seemed that she had completely anticipated all of this.

Why is she looking so excited about this? Erwin thought to himself in a confused manner.

Right at this moment, Cheren sprang up from the ground, then charged forward at an alarming speed before thrusting his sword forward again.

It was Erwin's turn to be astonished this time. He stared at the oncoming figure with a stunned expression, having been completely caught off guard by this abrupt development. He hadn't held back at all in the Magic Explosion that he had just unleashed, and that was the reason for his astonishment.

From the first attack unleashed by Cheren, Erwin was already able to roughly assess his opponent's power.

Thus, it was unfathomable to him that a martial artist of Cheren's level was able to withstand that violent Magic Explosion, and it was even more astonishing to Erwin that his opponent had managed to get up so quickly.

Immediately thereafter, Erwin noticed something that was even more alarming.

Why is he suddenly moving significantly faster than before? Looking at the sword that was piercing directly toward his face, Erwin reflexively raised his hands, conjuring a light shield to defend himself.

He watched as the tip of the oncoming longsword struck the outer wall of his light shield, and he couldn't help but be taken aback once again, this time by the power of the attack. Where has his newfound power come from? There's no way a martial artist of his caliber should be able to unleash such a powerful attack!

Onean was watching from the sidelines, and her brows furrowed ever so slightly, indicating that she had also detected that something was amiss.

Meanwhile, a smug smile appeared on Theresa's face, and an intrigued look surfaced in her eyes as she inspected the spherical light shield that Erwin had conjured up.

In this moment, both Erwin and Onean were pondering the same question: How has this man instantaneously received such a significant boost in power?

Inside the light shield, Erwin began to think back to the lessons taught to him by Professor Hawk. The professor's lessons had often left him feeling drowsy and lightheaded, but Erwin had to admit that all of his teachings were extremely useful.

"In terms of the quantity of elemental matter, far less is required to unleash martial techniques than it is for magicians to unleash spells. At the very least, that has been the case in all of the powerful martial artists that I've seen." 

This was something that Professor Hawk had once said to him.

With that in mind, an enlightened look suddenly appeared on Erwin's face, and he thought to himself, I bet you've never seen a martial artist like this, Professor Hawk.

At this point, Erwin had figured out the reason for his opponent's sudden increase in power. Most martial artists elevated their own powers by absorbing the elemental matter in the surrounding environment, but Cheren was a very unique case in that he was directly absorbing the elemental matter blasted into his body by his opponent to enhance his own powers. 

In other words, the more powerful the spell that Erwin unleashed upon Cheren, the more elemental matter he would be able to absorb, and the greater the degree to which his power would be enhanced.

With that in mind, he finally understood why Theresa had looked so excited to see Cheren being struck down the first time.

This also explained why Cheren was able to get up so quickly and unleashed a second attack after being struck by Erwin's Magic Explosion.

However, there's still another problem, Erwin thought to himself. Even if he's able to absorb the magic energy from my attack, how was he able to ensure that he remained unscathed in the instant that he was struck by the attack?

During his first-round match in the Pillow Sword Tournament, Erwin had almost been killed on the spot by the enormous influx of magic energy that had surged into his body in the instant that he withdrew his light shield. There was simply no way that the body of the average person could withstand such a massive influx of energy in such a short time.

At this moment, Erwin was suddenly reminded of his battle against Talan at the Joffan Sea. During that battle, Talan had unleashed all of the matter energy that had been accumulating in his body at once, and the memory of the resulting attack was something that sent chills running down Erwin's spine even to this day.

Through his battle against Talan, Erwin learned a valuable lesson, which was that the human body could be used as a vessel.

The problem is that this man definitely doesn't possess the same level of power as Talan, nor is his physical constitution anywhere near as insane. In that case... Erwin carefully inspected Cheren through the wall of his light shield, following which he instantly understood the nature of the situation.

While these thoughts were flashing through Erwin's mind, Cheren was repeatedly striking at the outer wall of the light shield over and over again, and his sword strikes were very heavy and powerful.

Count Onen could see that Cheren had no intention of stopping, and he hurriedly yelled, "What are you doing, Cheren?"

However, Cheren displayed no reaction at all to Count Onen's voice, continuing to attack Erwin's light shield with single-minded focus and determination.

All of the nobles present were under the impression that Cheren was retaliating out of fury from being struck down by Erwin's attack earlier, but it seemed to them that Erwin wasn't in any danger in his light shield, so they weren't overly concerned. In fact, many of them were still thinking that this was nothing more than a friendly sparring match.

Only the more powerful martial artists and magicians in the crowd could see that Cheren was attacking with the intent to kill.

Of course, Erwin wasn't exactly having an enjoyable time in the light shield, and a layer of cold sweat had already soaked through the back of his clothes.

"Get him to stop right now!" Count Onen said to Theresa in a low voice, and the tone of his voice was nowhere near as amiable as before. He didn't want to scold his niece in front of so many people, but he had seen the look that Theresa had given to Cheren right before Cheren lashed out at Erwin.

"What's the hurry? There hasn't been a decisive outcome yet," Theresa replied in a breezy voice as she continued to watch the battle taking place in the air above.

Count Onen was furious to hear this. At this rate, a decisive outcome would only emerge once one of the combatants was dead!

Looking at his opponent through the wall of the light screen, Erwin thought to himself, I can't recklessly attack him any further. If I allow him to absorb any more magic energy, I'll be in serious trouble. Looks like I'll have to find an opportunity to end this battle with a single attack.

After making his decision, Erwin immediately withdrew his light shield, then unleashed a space split technique to open up some distance between himself and Cheren.

Even though Cheren had become far faster than before, he was still far from reaching the levels of speed that the likes of Aiden and Jeff were capable of displaying. Thus, even though he was pursuing Erwin with all his might, he wasn't able to exert as much pressure on Erwin as he would've liked.

Right as the tip of Cheren's sword was about to reach Erwin's back, many of the women in the garden let loose involuntary cries of alarm.

However, a triumphant smile suddenly appeared on Erwin's face, and he twisted around in an agile fashion to evade the attack with ease. 

Immediately thereafter, he conjured up his light shield once again, but instead of using it to withstand Cheren's attacks, he trapped Cheren within the light shield instead.

As a result, all of the elemental matter that was supposed to surge into the light shield was completely absorbed into Erwin's body. Thankfully, this was something that he did quite frequently, so his body had built up some resistance and didn't explode like an overfilled balloon.

Even so, the painful look on his face and his bloodshot eyes clearly indicated that this was far from an enjoyable experience.

In reality, Erwin could've used his magic power to withstand the influx of elemental matter like he normally did, and there was no need to take such a risk. After all, creating a space in which time stood still was already a simple task for him at this point.

However, he had chosen this riskier course of action as he had thought of the theory that he had recently devised, which was that space could be altered in environments where time stood.

For him, the only conceivable way to defeat Cheren was through spatial compression, just as the giant ice dragon had done to Onean back in the Terarody Mountain Ranges.

At the time, Erwin had clearly sensed that the space within the pillar of light had been compressing toward the center.

What Erwin was trying to do was to absorb a sufficient amount of elemental matter, then convert that into magic energy before injecting all of that magic energy into the light shield at once.

As for why he was absorbing the elemental matter into his own body before commencing the conversion process, that was because this was the only conversion method that Erwin was capable of at his current level of his power. With his current level of magic power, he was still unable to unleash such a large quantity of elemental matter at once in the form of a spell.

He was situated outside of the light shield, so time wasn't standing still for him. Generally speaking, he would be the one inside the light shield during battle, and that allowed him to do things like complete the incantations for powerful spells in the ancient magic language in an instant. However, things were not so simple outside the light shield.

Of course, Cheren wasn't just a sitting duck who would be content with staying in the light shield and resigning himself to his fate. Instead, he was tirelessly lashing out at the inner wall of the light shield over and over again with his sword, but his attacks proved to be completely futile.

As it turned out, Erwin only had to dedicate a small portion of his magic power to trapping Cheren inside the light shield and preventing him from coming out. The rest of his attention and magic power was dedicated to the task of absorbing the vast amount of elemental matter that was flowing into his body in a smooth and consistent manner.

Ever since he first used his light shield during the offense and defense class, he had endured dozens of battles, and this process of absorbing elemental matter had been gradually refined over that time. On several occasions, he had placed his own life at risk, but all of his efforts had paid off. With the experience that he had accrued over time, he was finally able to evenly control the tempo to minimize the damage to his own body.

He had experienced the agony of feeling like every single blood vessel in his body was about to burst, and there really was no better teacher than that type of unforgettable pain.

The nobles in the garden didn't know anything about time and space magic, so they were merely intrigued by Erwin's magic. Prior to this, he was placing himself in the light shield, yet he had suddenly switched places with his opponent on this occasion, and that was quite an interesting sight for all of the bystanders.

Unbeknownst to them, once Erwin was fully prepared, he could reduce Cheren to a ball of mangled flesh and bones, or even a speck of dust, in the blink of an eye.

Count Onen could tell that Erwin had gained the upper hand, which was quite a pleasing sight to him. He then turned to look at Theresa with a cold expression. Theresa was the one who had instigated this incident, but it seemed that she had shot herself in the foot.

However, right as he directed his gaze toward Theresa, what she did next came as a complete surprise to him once again.

All of a sudden, she pulled a short staff out of her sleeve, then fired a spell directly toward Erwin's back without any hesitation.

No one could've anticipated that such a sweet-looking young woman could be so despicable and shameless, going as far as to unleash a sneak attack right before everyone's eyes. The initial attack that Cheren had unleashed toward Erwin was already very abrupt and unscrupulous, but to everyone's surprise, his mistress was even more shameless, attacking Erwin from behind right as the battle was reaching its climax.

However, the spell didn't fly very far before it was struck down by a streak of white light.

Everyone turned to discover Onean looking up with a finger held aloft, and the streak of light had just been released from her fingertip. A cold look appeared in her golden eyes as she cast her gaze toward Theresa, and Theresa was so frightened that she immediately averted her gaze and didn't dare to try any more funny business.

Much to the surprise of everyone in attendance, they came to realize that Erwin's wife was not just a splendid beauty, but was also an unfathomably powerful magician.

Erwin's heart jolted slightly as he sensed the exchange that took place behind him. Never did he think that someone would attack him from behind at a time like this, and his clothes were drenched in a new layer of cold sweat.

If I had been struck in the back by that spell at a time like this, I'd be in severe trouble, he thought to himself. There was no way that he would've been able to ward off the spell on his own. With such an enormous amount of elemental matter entering his body, even the slightest lapse in the conversion process could instantly cost him his life. If he couldn't convert the elemental matter into magic energy before expelling it out of his own body, then it would destroy him from the inside.

However, this sneak attack issued him a reminder that it was perhaps not a good idea to kill Cheren.

After all, he still wanted to be able to stay in the Boll Dukedom after this.