"Oh? I didn't know you had this move up your sleeve," Theresa said as she cast her gaze toward Erwin, who was biting down onto her ear with a triumphant expression.

All of a sudden, a fierce look appeared in her eyes, and Erwin abruptly let loose a pained groan before being sent flying through the air in the blink of an eye.

The reason for this was that Theresa had unleashed an extremely powerful wave right into Erwin's belly. For her, there was no such thing as an instant-release spell. Her body was fundamentally an entity formed by elemental matter, so she was able to unleash instant-release spells with any part of her body with ease.

Erwin's body was sent tumbling along the scorched earth of the Canston Plain, sending a few plumes of dust flying up into the air before he finally drew to a halt.

Onean was looking on from the side with a cold expression, feeling no sympathy toward him whatsoever. If she still had any magic power at this moment, he would've most likely ended up in an even worse position.

Erwin coughed a few times as he clambered to his feet before dusting himself off.

At this point, Theresa had already arrived before him.

Sherry and the others could tell that Erwin's injuries weren't very severe, considering he was able to get up on his own, so they chose not to intervene, instead allowing Erwin to fully enjoy himself.

"What you did just now was very foolish," Theresa said, and the smile on her face had already completely faded.

"All I did was lick your ear a little," Erwin protested in a shameless manner.

"I'm not talking about that," Theresa said in a cold voice.

"Then what are you talking about?"

"You seem to really enjoy entangling yourself with other women like this. That's going to land you in trouble sooner or later," Theresa said as she glanced at Erwin.

If word of his interactions with Onean and Theresa on this battlefield were to be spread to those who harbored ill will toward Erwin, then there was a good chance that the information would be used against him.

"Why are you so concerned for me all of a sudden?" Erwin asked with an amused expression. "Weren't you just talking about how we had only met on one previous occasion prior to this?"

"I didn't notice this before, but you're quite good with your mouth." This was a double-edged statement from Theresa, both insulting Erwin for not daring to directly face her in battle, while also mentioning the bite that he had just taken on her ear.

"You don't look like you're going to give up anytime soon. Are you insisting that we fight each other?" Erwin asked as he sat down with his legs crossed.

A complex look appeared on Theresa's face as she pursed her lips in response. "Do you really have a way to..."

"No, I don't," Erwin hurriedly interjected with a shake of his head. "I don't have a way to do anything to you. I was only bluffing just now."

"What an interesting person you are," Theresa said, and she was smiling as she said this, but the tone of her voice was filled with frustration and resentment.

"Ha, I suppose I am," Erwin replied with a resigned smile.

"By the way, why did you decide to get involved with this battle?" Theresa asked as she cast her gaze toward all of the mercenaries clad in suits of Xuanwu armor in the distance.

"I suppose there's no harm in telling you. This is the Universal Church Freedom Army, and our objective is to abolish the rule of nobles like you," Erwin replied in a very relaxed voice, as if he were talking about something completely mundane.

"What?" An incredulous look immediately appeared on Theresa's face, and she was almost wondering if she had misheard Erwin.

An awkward silence immediately descended onto the two of them.

"You're going to abolish the rule of the nobles?" Theresa asked for confirmation.

Erwin nodded in response.

"I thought that I had already seen all of the surprises that today had to offer, but it looks like the best was saved for last," Theresa sighed.

"Where there's a will, there's a way. Just like what happened today. I was in a dire situation, but I was able to bluff my way out of it," Erwin said with an amused smile.

"I didn't think that you were so ambitious," Theresa said as she inspected Erwin closely.

"How am I ambitious? I'm just doing this for the Universal Church," Erwin countered with a faint smile.

"Don't try to fool me with that. You and I are the same type of people. You can perhaps use that excuse to placate the pastors of the Universal Church, but that's not going to work with me."

"We're the same type of people?" Erwin was rather amused to hear this. "So what type of person are we, exactly?"

"We place ourselves above all else," Theresa replied as she pointed at Erwin with a hint of mockery in her eyes.

"Well said!" Erwin praised with a nod. "But that doesn't seem to conflict with what I just said."

Theresa was rather amused to hear this. "So you're saying that it's a mutually beneficial relationship between you and the Universal Church, right?"

"That's a bit of a narrow-minded way to think about it."

"Stop being so pretentious," Theresa accused as she rolled her eyes at Erwin.

"Alright, I'm not going to argue with you any further."

"Judging from the looks of it, you've been plotting this battle for quite a while as well, haven't you?" Theresa asked as she turned to look at Erwin.

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

"I was wondering why Mackney and my uncle suddenly decided to go into battle against each other," Theresa said. "It was you who was pulling the strings behind the scenes, right?"

Erwin nodded once again with a faint smile. "They've always wanted to take each other out, haven't they? I merely provided them with an opportunity."

Theresa also nodded in response upon hearing this. At this point, she finally understood all of the events that had led up to this point, and with that in mind, she was at even more of a loss for what to make out of Erwin.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Erwin pretended to be intimidated by her scrutiny and put on a fearful expression.

"I was just kicking myself for not taking a closer look at you during the tea party," Theresa replied with a faint smile. In reality, she was kicking herself for not identifying Erwin's ambitions during their first meeting.

Erwin immediately burst into laughter upon hearing this. "What? Am I that good-looking that you regret not looking at me more?"

"Seeing as your plan and execution were both so well done, you deserve this victory," Theresa said in a very classy manner.

"Don't say that, I completely failed to predict that you would appear here," Erwin said with a serious expression. "We came really close to falling to you and your cavaliers."

"I don't think you were ever in any real danger of failing with her by your side. All of the painstaking effort I put into that legion over the past few years was destroyed by her in an instant," Theresa sighed as she looked at the remains of her once mighty legion. However, after her interactions with Erwin, she was feeling a lot less dejected.

"You're quite impressive as well. Not everyone can modify their own body to this extent."

"Is that supposed to be a compliment?" Theresa asked as she turned to look at Erwin out of the corners of her eyes.

"What else could it be?" Erwin asked.

"Alright, then I accept your compliment," Theresa replied with a fake smile. "However, seeing as you have so many ambitions and wild dreams, I'm sure we'll come across each other in opposition in the future."

"Do you really want to die by my hands?" Even though Erwin wasn't using a threatening tone as he said this, it was still a very menacing statement.

However, Theresa merely brushed off the question with a smile, displaying no anger or fear toward it.

"I hope the conclusion of our next meeting won't be so anticlimactic," Theresa remarked in an indifferent voice, then turned to depart in an elegant manner. Her golden locks trailed all the way down to her waist, and she was completely nude from her shoulders to her waist.

As for her lower body, that was concealed by a series of watery ripples, and as she turned to depart, she left an extremely alluring profile for Erwin to look at.

In the blink of an eye, she had already disappeared into the distance, but Erwin was still rooted to the spot with an absentminded expression.

In contrast with Theresa's beauty, he was more stunned by her mentality, and he couldn't help but wonder if actually had no regard for her uncle at all.

If he had witnessed the determination with which Theresa had led her Demonic Puppet Legion onto this battlefield, then his question would've already been answered.

At this point, Sherry finally made his way over to Erwin, then gestured toward the west, where Shiba had already captured Count Onen and the rest of his forces.

...

At this point, Count Onen had already been completely subdued and was looking nowhere near as dashing and gallant as he had looked on the battlefield. "Mr. Erwin, what is the meaning of this? What are you going to do?"

He had been tied up like a defeated rooster, and he was completely at Erwin's mercy.

"What is the meaning of this?" Erwin scratched his own head as an awkward look appeared on his face. "Let's see, how do I explain this to you... Ah, yes, we're here to abolish the rule of the nobles."

This was something that he had already said to Theresa earlier.

"All of the people that you see here today belong to our Universal Church Freedom Army," Erwin explained with a smile. "Our objective is very simple: we want to seize the land of the nobles and distribute it among the people."

"What?!" A stunned look appeared on Count Onen's face, and he couldn't tell if Erwin was serious. "You want to abolish the rule of the nobles?!"

He then burst into raucous laughter, as if this were the funniest joke he had ever heard.

The other nobles who had been captured along with Onen also burst into laughter upon hearing what Erwin had to say, and they were looking at Erwin like he was a madman who was spouting nonsense.

Onen cast his gaze toward Erwin before asking, "Do you even understand what you're saying? If you know what's good for you, then you'd let me go right now, then find a doctor to take a look at your head. Has all that painting made you become an idiot? Abolish the rule of the nobles? Take a look at the pitiful number of people you have under your command! Do you even have 1,000 men following you? You think this will be enough to overthrow the nobility system? What a joke!"

Count Onen was already in a foul mood after suffering such severe losses, and after hearing Erwin's ridiculous statement, he had thrown his manners out the window and was laughing directly in Erwin's face.

Erwin offered no reply to Onen. Instead, he invited Lia to see Onen from the back of the unit.

Count Onen calmed down slightly upon seeing Lia's arrival. He finally realized now that Erwin wasn't making a joke. Instead, he really did have the support of the Universal Church in this endeavor.

"Elder Lia, you better have a good explanation for me here." Onen knew that his life was currently in the hands of others, but he was still clinging onto an authoritative facade and putting on a high and mighty display in the presence of Lia.

His confidence and sense of superiority stemmed from his identity as a noble. He was convinced that these commoners couldn't actually do anything to a noble like him. In addition to that, the representative of the Universal Church here was Elder Lia, who was renowned for being a warm and benevolent character. Hence, Onen was completely unconcerned for his own safety.