Even though Erwin was facing the oncoming Theresa with a grim expression, he hadn't forgotten his duties as the commander of the freedom army, even though he only had roughly 800 troops under his command.

"Shiba, lead our brothers into battle! Don't let a single one of them get away!" Erwin commanded in a loud voice. "Lanyon, cover them from the sky!"

Erwin knew that Onen and Mackney were definitely about to escape at a time like this. They didn't have the spare time to stay around and watch him duke it out with Theresa. Regardless of what the outcome of his battle against Theresa was, it didn't mean anything to them. They were simply content in the knowledge that the main forces under Theresa's command had also been completely wiped out.

Sherry immediately sprang into action, issuing an order for the footsoldiers to disperse in order to create a path for the cavaliers behind them to pass through.

"My brothers, come with me! It's time to clean up this battlefield!" Shiba yelled as he emerged from behind the Xuanwu shield formation with the Monge Riders mercenary legion.

Lanyon also began to steer the airship into the sky above the battlefield, following along behind Shiba and his subordinates.

Shiba only had roughly 200 men under his command, but that was enough to clean up the battlefield at this point in the battle.

Neither Onen nor Mackney had any remaining backup troops at their disposal, and there was still Lanyon hovering in the sky above. If they were to try and resist, their resistance would be immediately quelled by a barrage of spells from Lanyon and the other magicians.

At the moment, the two groups were like pieces of meat on a chopping board, completely at Erwin's mercy.

However, Shiba only sped off toward the west, and he didn't bother to divert any of his men to chase after Mackney.

This wasn't because Shiba didn't want to intercept Mackney. Instead, it was because he had clearly seen that Erwin's eyes were pointed toward the west as he was issuing those orders, which meant that Erwin's intention was to spare the lives of Mackney and his group. Of course, as old subordinates who had already served Erwin for some time, Lanyon and the others immediately understood Erwin's intentions.

As for why Erwin was doing this, that was because he knew that the mission of the Universal Church was to abolish the nobility system. If they were to go after the wealthy merchants of Tellier at a time like this, the only thing that would accomplish would be to earn themselves an extra enemy for no reason, and there was naturally no way that he was going to do that. Erwin was well aware of who his enemies were at this point in time. Of course, these were the enemies of the Universal Church. As for himself, he harbored no personal enmity toward any of these people.

Furthermore, he knew that the nobles of Zans were already a spent force, but the wealthy merchants of Tellier were very much on the rise. On one side was a piece of wood that had completely rotten through at the center, while on the other side was a potential ally. With that in mind, it was obvious who he should pursue and who he should let go. Furthermore, even if they were to wipe out the Farody, Fayma, and Luther Families here, that wouldn't equate to any actual progress. The wine trade guild of Tellier still existed, and it wasn't just going to collapse with the demise of these families.

So long as the trade guild continued to exist, they could always make a resurgence. There were many things that could be destroyed simply by killing a few people, and Erwin was well aware of this. In particular, in this era, there was no end to the number of merchants in this world. From his past conversations with Christine, he could clearly sense that a new era was in the process of rising, and a smart man like him certainly wasn't going to stand against the direction that the tide of history was flowing in.

However, Mackney was completely oblivious to all of this. He and Lucidy were fleeing toward the east in a panic, and he didn't have the spare capacity to look after the other members of the family.

While Shiba and Lanyon were pursuing Count Onen, the furious Theresa had also clashed with Erwin.

Erwin used the miniature light shield conjured up over his palm to oppose the ice crystals hurtling out of the tip of Theresa's staff.

Before he knew it, he was sent flying back through the air uncontrollably, somersaulting end over end a few times before coming to a stop.

Some of the spell's magic energy had already been drawn into the surrounding space-time rifts, yet the rest was still able to send Erwin flying like this, so it was clear that Theresa's magic power was certainly far from unremarkable.

However, Erwin had full trust in Onean's judgment, so he was convinced that Theresa had to have tampered with her own body following the tea party.

However, magicians and martial artists were different in that the strength of a magician's body didn't impact the potency of their magic power.

Magic power referred to one's ability to control and alter the elemental matter of the world, which meant that no matter how one modified one's own body, there was no way they would've been able to increase their own magic power.

"That's all you've got?" Theresa pursed her lips with disdain as she sent Erwin flying through the air, then rushed directly toward Onean.

Her eyes were fixed firmly on Onean, and if looks could kill, then Onean would've already died 1,000 deaths.

However, Onean didn't display any fear at all, and even though she was completely powerless to resist, her golden eyes were filled with only indifference and contempt toward Theresa.

"Don't tell me that was your life's work that I just destroyed," Onean said as she cast an indifferent gaze toward Theresa. "I don't have a hobby of breaking other people's toys, but I'm not going to feel guilty about it, either."

"Shut up, you filthy whore!" The fury and resentment on Theresa's face became even more pronounced upon hearing this, and her lips were trembling uncontrollably.

A faint smile appeared on Onean's face at the sight of Theresa's furious expression. In her eyes, Theresa was ultimately only a little girl. No matter what she did, Onean simply couldn't bring herself to take Theresa seriously, and perhaps that was why she had always felt a sense of disdain toward Theresa.

At the same time, she also looked down on Theresa for relying on external things to enhance herself. At the very least, in Onean's eyes, Theresa's utilization of magic was very unorthodox and overly reliant on external entities.

Right as Theresa was about to close her hand around Onean's throat, Erwin appeared behind Theresa using his space split technique, then grabbed onto the sash around her waist, hurling her away before she even had a chance to graze Onean with her fingertips.

While Erwin was somersaulting through the air just now, he had been contemplating something: why hadn't Onean's Eternal Dispersion dispersed the modifications that Theresa had enacted upon her own body? Seeing as all of the toys under Theresa's command had been dispersed, how had Theresa been spared?

For some reason, the thought of Talon surfaced in his mind, and along with it came the inspiration that he derived from the thought of using one's own body as a vessel.

Of course, a magician couldn't replicate the cultivation method adopted by a martial artist like Talon. Hence, Theresa hadn't modified herself into a vessel for magic energy. Instead, she had modified herself into a body of elemental matter, and that was why Onean had been unable to disperse her.

Even the most powerful dispersion spells could only disperse the magical attributes imbued upon a living being or an object, but they were unable to disperse elemental matter, which existed naturally as a part of the world. In other words, everything that was artificially modified could be dispersed, but natural entities were immune to dispersion spells.

What Theresa had done was modify her own body into a body of water-attribute matter. The enormous wave and those ice crystals seemed to have been magic energy that had erupted out of her staff, but in reality, they had all been a part of her body.

That beautiful outward appearance of hers was nothing more than a facade draped over the body of water elements.

After making this realization, Erwin found himself completely astonished.

He couldn't help but wonder if Theresa could still qualify as a human in her current state. At the very least, he felt like she could no longer be regarded as a normal human.

This was a body of elemental matter, but it possessed human skin, and a human's consciousness and ability to think. Could such an entity be referred to as a human? Such a philosophically compelling question would have to be answered by the great thinkers and philosophers of the future.

What truly frightened Erwin was just how obsessed with becoming more powerful Theresa was. Just like most nobles, Theresa was also someone who had been born with a silver spoon in her mouth, and one could only imagine that she was spoiled rotten as the only daughter of the duke. What kind of motivation could've driven her to make such a huge sacrifice, even abandoning her status as a human in exchange for more power?

In Erwin's eyes, this was an incredible sacrifice, but from Theresa's perspective, she was merely upholding her own belief.

This was what she felt magic to be, and even if she had to gamble everything she had, she would gladly do so for her own belief and conviction.

Another belief that she held was that Onen and Mackney's factions shouldn't exist, so she was willing to go to whatever lengths and make whatever sacrifices necessary to destroy these two factions.

This was the reason for Erwin's astonishment, and he didn't know whether he should admire, be envious of, or pity someone like Theresa. In fact, he was even struck by a profound sense of confusion and self-doubt, doubting whether his own definition of the word "human" was too shallow and narrow-minded.

"What's going on with her?" Onean asked as Erwin positioned himself in front of her, and a hint of fury flashed through her eyes as she spoke. It was clear that she felt violated by Theresa's sudden attack.

Erwin didn't dare to divert his attention to turn around and face Onean, so he was still staring intently at Theresa as he replied, "She's modified her own body into a body of elemental matter."

"I see." Upon hearing what Erwin had to say, Onean was also able to understand why her dispersion spell had failed to have any effect on Theresa.

"To think that she's willing to go this far..." Onean couldn't help but muse to herself.

It was unclear whether she was moved by Theresa's near-deranged determination, or if she was appalled by the bodily modifications Theresa had enacted upon herself.

"Don't look at me like that," Theresa said as she looked back at Erwin with a cold expression. "This is nothing to me."

Erwin knew that his expression was betraying a hint of sympathy that was undoubtedly quite insulting for Theresa.

"My apologies," Erwin said with a serious expression. "But rest assured, I won't hold back against you."

Theresa took a close glance at Erwin, then suddenly chuckled in amusement, "You're an interesting person. You're clearly not so cruel and cold-hearted, yet you're putting on a cold and forbidding facade."

Erwin's brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this. "What do you mean by that?"

All of a sudden, Theresa transformed into a body of water before erasing the distance between the two of them in the blink of an eye, then slithered her way up Erwin's body from the bottom.

"Look out!" Onean hurriedly exclaimed.

"What I'm saying is that you should learn from the whore behind you and not be so kind-hearted and merciful!" Theresa's face suddenly appeared in front of Erwin's chest, wearing a sinister expression, while her body had wound itself around Erwin like a snake.

Before Erwin had a chance to defend himself, Theresa thrust her palm directly into his chest, sending him flying through the air with blood gushing out of his mouth in a beautiful, crescent arc.

"How dare you!" Onean's golden eyes were burning with fury, and it was as if she were trying to incinerate Theresa to death with her eyes alone.

"Aw, did that hurt you?" Theresa returned to her human form as she turned to Onean with a mocking expression. "I suddenly feel like it won't be fun to kill you now. What were you saying just now? You don't feel guilty even though you destroyed my toys? Well, I just went ahead and destroyed your toy, so I'm only returning the favor. Surely that's not going too far."