Thus, one of the four founders of the Four Winds mercenary legion met his demise.

This was an inevitable outcome from the moment that Kaiba made the decision to stay in Tewadedan, and no one was surprised by this. Even Kaiba himself knew that his chances of surviving this battle were slim to none.

Even though the other three were all extremely pragmatic people, Kaiba's death was still an event that had rocked them to the core and filled them with powerful emotions. It was like putting a drop of water into the sea. It was very difficult to say whether this drop of water had any effect on the sea, but it was undeniable that the event had taken place.

Of course, Erwin only heard about Kaiba's death sometime later, but from the moment that he left Tewadedan, he had already anticipated that this would happen. Otherwise, he wouldn't have bid farewell to Kaiba with such finality in his own heart while departing from Tewadedan.

This was the world of adults, and one had to take responsibility for their own decisions.

Kaiba had made this choice of his own accord, so he had to deal with the consequences.

No longer were they sheltered young nobles who always had the backing of their families no matter what kind of mess they got themselves into.

However, Kaiba was very glad that he had made this decision, and he had died a happy man.

If he had managed to last just a little longer before departing from this world, then he would've been even more elated, because mere moments after his death, light began to erupt from the grey sun.

The Compulsion of Death had bloomed like a silver lotus flower.

On this violent and sinister battlefield, this cesspool of death and slaughter, the silver lotus flower came into full bloom, radiating scintillating light to every corner of the battlefield.

The grey light scorched one's skin and flesh and destroyed one's. Even weapons, armor, mountains, rivers, and other landmarks were not immune to its effects. Every single person situated on every corner of Deer Antler Hill felt as if they had been plunged into a grey world of chaos.

With that, the bright azure speck of light also dissipated into rays of light that spread in all directions.

This was the final radiance cast upon the world by the woman known as Gwen Jenkins. She may have ceased to exist, but her impact on this world would far outlive her.

All of the soldiers of the Atlas Empire that had carved their way deep into the ranks of the Fooz army suffered severe casualties. The weaker martial artists and magicians among them had already been reduced to puddles of grey water with glittering silver dust floating on the surface.

Chase was able to react quite quickly, dragging a few Fooz footsoldiers in front of himself as a meat shield, and only then was he just barely able to escape with his life. However, he had unintentionally left the lower half of one of his legs exposed, and his ankle had been stripped down to its bones, while his tibia had also been exposed.

Similarly, Larwood's reflexes were also quite exceptional. In the instant that the grey light began to radiate over the battlefield, he raised a shield in front of himself, but a section of his right forearm was still affected by the light, and that section had become a gruesome mass of exposed flesh and pus.

At the cost of Gwen's life, over 30,000 soldiers of the Atlas Empire had been killed.

This meant that aside from the 10,000 elite troops that Aiden had brought with him, the entirety of the new army assembled by the nobles of Sarus had been decimated by Gwen.

Thankfully, those aforementioned elite troops were hanging back from the battlefield, and they were able to make a timely retreat. Otherwise, the entire army would've been annihilated.

From this point onward, this place would no longer be known as Deer Antler Hill as all of the hills on either side of the battlefield had already been razed to the ground by the eruption of grey radiance.

...

Looking up at the sky, which had returned to its original state, the soldiers of Fooz were beginning to come to terms with the fact that their commander had just fallen.

At the cost of her own life, Gwen had wiped out the majority of the Atlas Empire's forces.

However, the demise of their commander didn't bring about a drop in morale among the troops of Fooz. Instead, it had lit a flame in their hearts. Their eyes were filled with burning fury, and all of the remaining soldiers of Fooz, of which there were still more than 40,000, vowed to avenge Gwen.

Aiden had flown back frantically in the instant that the grey light had erupted, but at this point, he had also returned to the battlefield.

Surveying the horrendous state that his own forces had been reduced to, he couldn't help but grit his teeth in fury and frustration.

He had to admit that Gwen was a worthy adversary, and that he shouldn't have underestimated her.

Any disrespect extended toward one's opponent could potentially lead to horrific consequences, as was the case here.

However, the situation was still under control. Even though they were at a severe numbers disadvantage, his elite troops had endured countless battles and were far superior to this ragtag army of Fooz that had been assembled in a short time.

In addition to that, the flattened battlefield had become ideal for cavaliers to roam over.

In the wake of Gwen's sacrifice, all of the soldiers of Fooz had worked up the resolve to lay down their own lives, but in the face of merciless assaults from the elite cavalry of Burmen, all they could do was plug the holes in their defensive line with their bodies.

Having taken some time to compose himself, Aiden was instructing his troops in a calm and intelligent manner. Under his sound instruction, the 10,000 elite troops under his command were quickly able to tear a series of holes in the Fooz army's defensive line. In addition to that, Aiden was participating in the battle in person, and his power was completely unmatched.

In contrast, the soldiers of Fooz had lost their commander and were fighting on willpower alone. After warding off several waves of attacks from the enemy, they were finally beginning to falter.

However, not a single one of the remaining soldiers of Fooz let Gwen down, and all of them refused to surrender. As a result, the battle wore on until it was almost nighttime before finally drawing to a conclusion.

As the light of the setting sun shone down lazily upon the halberd in Aiden's grasp, he was struck by a sense of weariness, and it seemed that even the setting sun had grown tired of watching their battle. Aiden had already lost count of how many times he had led his troops on a charge against the enemy forces, and even though there were barely any soldiers left in the Fooz army, they were still setting up anti-cavalry formations, and a hint of admiration welled up in his heart upon seeing this.

He knew that this final charge would completely decimate what little remained of the enemy forces, and he had long given up on the idea of coaxing the enemy into surrender. He knew that there was no way that these people were going to surrender. Their eyes were filled with nothing but fury and resentment, and there was no getting through to people like them, who were already determined to die.

Even life and death no longer mattered to them, what could Aiden possibly say to sway them?

As the final soldier of Fooz was beheaded, a sense of powerlessness and dejection welled up in Aiden's heart.

For him and the newly founded Atlas Empire, this couldn't have been counted as a victory at all.

Of the 50,000 troops that he had brought with him, there were fewer than 6,000 left.

They had decimated the army of Fooz, but what was to happen after that?

Not a single one of the 80,000 troops that Gwen had led out of Tewadedan had survived.

How are the citizens of Tewadedan going to view the imperial army in the wake of this battle? Aiden thought to himself. It looks like we won't be able to escape the title of tyrant.

He knew that Fooz was most likely going to be very difficult to manage in the future.

Only then did he finally realize why Gwen had been so decisive in sacrificing herself. This had clearly been her plan all along. She knew that there was no way that they could win this battle, so she had decided to sacrifice herself from the very beginning in order to spur on her troops to do the same.

Due to what he had heard from his father, Aiden had always looked down on the Jenkins Family. From a young age, he had been told that the Jenkins Family was filled with mediocrity, so he had never taken them seriously.

However, Gwen had taught him a painful lesson on this occasion, and it was a lesson that he was never going to forget.

...

Following the conclusion of the battle, the Atlas Empire's forces began to clean up the battlefield.

It was always during this process that some wounded soldiers would be discovered, buried under piles of bodies.

Larwood made his way over to Chase, then indicated toward his injured leg as he asked, "Is that gonna be a problem?"

At this point, both of them had already had their wounds treated by the military doctors.

At this moment, Chase was leaning against a pile of bodies, and his complexion was completely ashen. Under normal circumstances, his complexion was quite dark, but he was looking as pale as a sheet.

"It's not going to kill me. At the very worst, I'll just end up lame," Chase replied with a wry smile.

"It's not that bad, is it? Those military doctors appear to be quite capable," Larwood said as he carefully examined Chase's leg.

The exposed bone had already been covered in flesh again, so it wasn't as gruesome to behold as it had previously been. Of course, Chase hadn't recovered naturally to this extent. Instead, the flesh had been regrown through the effects of magic.

The flesh that had re-emerged over Chase's tibia and ankle was of an azure color with blue magic runes flowing around it, and a concerned look appeared on Chase's face as he looked down at the injury.

"What about your arm?" he asked.

"It's not as severe as what happened to you. The injury is only skin-deep, so I'll be fine in a month or two," Larwood replied with a smile while raising his arm to show Chase the wound there, which was covered by a layer of blue magic ointment.

Chase took a glance at the injury, and it was clear that it was far more severe than what Larwood was making it out to be.

He took a glance at Larwood, but didn't say anything.

At this point, the smiles on both of their faces had already faded.

It seemed that neither of them knew what to say next, so they were both choosing to remain silent.

Talking about how they had just survived a near-death ordeal was too corny, and talking about their old friend who had just met his demise was like tearing open an old wound, something that was far too painful to face.

In the end, it was Larwood who broke the silence. He cast his gaze toward the north before asking, "Do you think Erwin will find out?"

"Find out what?" Chase asked.

It was unclear whether Chase was actually oblivious to what Larwood was referring to or if he simply didn't want to discuss the subject.

Larwood shook his head as he continued to stare at the northern sky, which was still basked in the warm orange glow of the setting sun.

"It's hard to say whether he's even alive at this point," Chase sighed. "Maybe we're talking about someone who's already long dead."

Larwood was rather amused to hear this. "I don't think so. That bastard's not going to die so easily."