Erwin knew that his next opponent was going to be the elderly sword god, but he had no intention of backing down.

As for Sword God Buu himself, he flew through the air and arrived directly in front of Erwin.

"You can't go any further than this," Sword God Buu said in a cold voice as he looked at Erwin.

Erwin was completely unfazed and looked back at him with a cold expression.

"If you keep going like this, you're going to destroy this world," Sword God Buu said with a grim expression.

This was a serious warning that he was issuing to Erwin, but Erwin found it to be completely laughable, and he responded with a derisive snort.

Others would've perhaps been quite perplexed to hear this, but Aglea had a rough idea of what Sword God Buu was referring to. In fact, she had already developed a vague sense of things when she had first witnessed the new moons conjured up by Erwin. However, she wasn't a sympathetic person, nor did she hold any love or attachment to this world, so she had no intention of stepping in.

"If you're determined to proceed recklessly, I'm going to kill you even if I have to sacrifice myself to do it!" Sword God Buu declared as he looked at Erwin with a series of complex emotions in his eyes, including wariness, sympathy, and determination.

"I always felt like that little rascal seems to be a little different from before. I thought I simply didn't know him as well as I used to after my amnesia, but looking at him now, I can tell that he's gone too far in his pursuit of time and space magic," Lana said as she watched Erwin from afar with a concerned expression.

"No matter what he says, he's still just going to keep pushing himself until something gives out," Onean replied in a cold voice.

"Am I at fault for this as well? Or is my family to blame for this?" Lana asked. "Neither of you two have been willing to tell me about what happened back when we were in the south. I presume this has something to do with me."

Onean shook her head in response, and for once, she refrained from insulting Lana. "He may seem casual and easygoing all the time, but deep down, he has more pride than anyone."

"Perhaps it's exactly because of his unique personality that I became so interested in him," Lana remarked with a faint smile.

Onean was unable to hold back on this occasion, and she jeered, "Interested? That's an understatement! You've already completely fallen head over heels for him!"

"My heart is his, but at least I still haven't given my body to him," Lana countered.

She then turned to Onean with a suspicious expression as she continued, "Did nothing happen between you two during your journey from the south all the way to the north? He just allowed you to maintain your purity? I have to admit that I'm very impressed. Or could it be that he never liked you that much in the first place?"

"You think everyone is as shameless as you?" Onean snapped.

Lana wasn't incensed by this at all, and she smiled as she said, "I've forgotten all of my past memories, what need is there for me to cling onto concepts like shame and humility? Perhaps Aglea was right. If I had all of my memories, perhaps I wouldn't have had the courage to come to the north."

Onean was naturally aware that Lana wasn't the type of lovestruck girl who would selfishly rush all the way to the north just to pursue her lover, so it was clear that something had to have happened in the south. She knew that Prime Minister Fuller was a shady figure in the imperial court, and she really wanted to know what he was up to. However, she wasn't going to raise that question, and it had nothing to do with whether Lana had lost her memories or not.

As it turned out, Onean was mistaken. Lana had only been taken to the north by Erwin's staff during the dire situation that had arisen after she stumbled upon the True Light Church's secret ceremony. However, Fuller was also a follower of the True Light Church. Seeing as the True Light Church was the mastermind behind all of this, technically, Onean was somewhat correct in her theory.

If Pope Sirius of the True Light Church were present to witness Erwin in his current form, there was a good chance that he would kneel down and pray to Erwin as if he were a god.

Some things were already predestined to progress toward a certain direction, and those predetermined paths couldn't be altered by the will of man. The coordinates for ultimate destinations for some things were already marked, but those coordinates were simply undetectable.

Hence, it could be said that it was meant to be that Sirius and Erwin were apart at this time.

Even though Sim had witnessed Erwin's incredible display of power just now, he wasn't worried in the slightest.

He immediately commanded the backup unit to pass through the narrow mountain path to reinforce Count Cooper and his troops, who were still on the walls of Fort Lungpierce.

Without Erwin's involvement, the magic output from the magicians led by Theresa and Lanyon was slightly lackluster, and many of the Delair Dukedom's soldiers were able to make it to the foot of the fortress without sustaining much damage.

Another reason for this was that Theresa's mind was focused entirely on Erwin's safety, so she wasn't paying much attention to intercepting the enemy soldiers.

Duba also arrived at the foot of Fort Lungpierce with Sim in accompaniment.

Thankfully, the powerful assassin from the Lodais Organization was already out of the picture, and both Lana and Onean were able to re-enter the fray.

It had to be said that Sim was quite a skilled tactician, and under his leadership, all of the troops of the Delair Dukedom were reinvigorated.

Even though they were facing two fearsome grand magic mentors in the form of Onean and Lana, the Delair Dukedom's soldiers were still able to reach the fortress walls in an orderly fashion without having their formations scattered at all.

With these reinforcements entering the fray, the state of the battle on the fortress walls instantly took a turn.

The Delair Dukedom's forces were locked in a grueling battle, but morale was instantly elevated by the arrival of the reinforcements.

Sherry cast his gaze toward the hordes of approaching enemy reinforcements, and no matter how calm and steadfast he was, this was still a very distressing sight.

"Should we not have kept some troops in reserve, Senior Sim? Now that we've deployed all of our forces, there's no going back," Duba said as he turned to Sim with a concerned expression.

"It's not our problem even if all of our troops perish here, wouldn't you agree, Your Excellency?" Sim replied with a calm expression.

An enlightened look immediately appeared on Duba's face upon hearing this.

"Besides, do you think there's any point in keeping troops in reserve against an opponent like this?" Sim continued. "If we can't take down Fort Lungpierce here, it doesn't matter how many troops we manage to recover from this battle."

Duba understood the situation upon hearing this, and he nodded in response.

...

Erwin's brows furrowed slightly as he heard the thunderous war cries ringing out beneath him.

With Lana and Onean presiding over the battlefield, there was no chance of Fort Lungpierce being overwhelmed in a short time, but he had to take care of Sword God Buu as quickly as possible.

Sword God Buu had just battled Aglea and Perry in succession, so he was already quite weary.

Having said that, Erwin's condition wasn't much better. He had expended a great deal of magic power in his battle against Rochea, and in addition to that, the twisted space required an enormous amount of magic power to support.

This is a truly dangerous man, Sword God Buu thought to himself as he looked into Erwin's determined eyes.

In the next instant, Carefree was already slashing toward Erwin's throat, only to miss by the finest of margins.

No one could've remained unscathed in the face of an all-out attack from the sword god himself, not even Aglea, but Erwin had somehow managed to accomplish this.

This was because in the instant that Sword God Buu lashed out with his sword, Erwin had already elongated the space between the two of them.

Sword God Buu had witnessed Erwin's battle against Rochea, so he had a rough understanding of how Erwin was manipulating space.

Thus, he had aimed his attack so that it encompassed a vast distance behind Erwin, but he still missed by a hair's breadth in the end.

Sword God Buu was clearly very surprised to see that Erwin hadn't been decapitated, and while he was reeling from this unexpected turn of events, a pair of new moons emerged in the night.

The new moons were like a pair of blades, devouring all light in the surrounding area.

Sword God Buu had seen Erwin conjure up this pair of new moons before, and the sigh that he had heard back in Finklan had sent chills running down his spine.

He had unmatched for the past few decades, and he was also itching to face the otherworldly deity residing within the spatial rift, but at the same time, he was worried that anything that emerged from the spatial rift would lay waste to this entire world.

He couldn't place the entire world at risk just to satisfy his own selfish desire.

Hence, he understood what he had to do. If he couldn't resolve the problem, then he would just have to get rid of the person that was causing the problem.

This was the logic with which he was approaching this situation, so in his eyes, Erwin had to be killed no matter what.

The more powerful Erwin became, the more intolerable Sword God Buu would be of his existence.

Having traveled the world for so many years, Sword God Buu had encountered many people studying the secrets of space and time, but most of them were already at a very advanced age while having only made very minimal progress in time and space magic, so they didn't pose much of a threat to this world. However, he had never seen someone as young as Erwin delve so deep into the fields of time and space.

In particular, after witnessing Erwin's manipulation of space, he became even more determined to kill Erwin.

There was nothing personal about this, it was purely for the sake of the greater good.

However, Erwin seemed to have gleaned Sword God Buu's thoughts, and a mocking sneer appeared on his face. "If you wanted to kill me purely because you don't like the look of me, perhaps I would think slightly higher of you."

Aglea immediately burst into laughter upon hearing this, and she had genuinely taken a liking to Erwin. She couldn't help but extend her praise and approval toward his statement, even though she no longer detested Sword God Buu as much as she did in the past.

When faced with someone as powerful as Sword God Buu, all of the other people in this world were filled with fear and reverence. There was no one who dared to proclaim that they would look down on the mighty sword god. At this point, Aglea was forced to admit that Lana had made a great choice.

Meanwhile, Perry was looking at Erwin with a slightly concerned expression.

He could sense that this elderly man that he seemed to be familiar with was starting to grow a little angry.

"You're doing this for the greater good? For the welfare of the entire world?" Erwin continued with a derisive sneer. "How absurd!"

It had been many years since Sword God Buu had felt the emotion of anger, but at this moment, he couldn't help but be overcome by it.

He felt like Erwin was looking at him as if he were some kind of idiot.

"Don't be angry. You are not any more foolish than the average person," Erwin said in an indifferent voice. "Hence, in my eyes, you are no different from an ordinary person."

An ordinary idiot. That was Erwin's appraisal of the sword god.