It was clear that Prince Lazaar had prepared extensively for this day. The suits of white armor being worn by these church soldiers had been crafted from special ore specifically so that they could remain immune to the effects of dragon fire. For the purpose of this battle, these church soldiers had already been training in the military base in Leeku for the past two to three years.

"Looks like you've been plotting this rebellion for a long time, Lazaar." Cameron was speaking with a derisive sneer on his face, but his words were tinged with unbridled fury. At this point, it had become apparent to him that the tide of this battle was turning firmly against his favor, and looking down at the chaotic battlefield, his sense of reason was beginning to be eroded by his rage.

Lazaar was very pleased to see Cameron's furious expression.

Under these circumstances, there was nothing that Count Friar could do. The path to retreat back to Illingburn Fort had already been completely sealed off by the church soldiers, and behind them were the elite troops of Burmen, who had been resting this entire time. As for the path to the east, that had been sealed off by the walls of ice conjured up by the church magicians, and that also prevented the remaining 20,000 or so Effer Kingdom soldiers in the east to provide reinforcements. Thus, the reserve army was like a beast trapped in a cage. If these dragons were allowed to continue to wreak havoc upon the battlefield for much longer, the entire reserve army could easily be decimated.

Count Friar looked up at the giant dragons in the sky with a cold expression, then took a step forward before springing up from the ground. Having been exclusively commanding the troops since the start of the battle, Count Friar was finally entering the fray himself.

His first attack was aimed at one of the flying dragons.

He transformed into a streak of light that rose up into the sky, and in the blink of an eye, his silver spear had already sliced a gash onto the flying dragon's stomach.

A flurry of sparks flashed in the wake of the tip of his spear, and by the time the sparks were snuffed out, several dozen brown dragon scales had been scraped off the dragon's belly.

The wounded dragon immediately let loose a pained howl, and it wrapped its own wings around itself for protection. After that, it began to fall unsteadily out of the sky with green dragon blood flowing out of the gash on its stomach.

Friar stared blankly at the quivering tip of his own spear, and he wasn't elated at all by the fact that he had just felled a dragon with a single attack. That was an all-out attack he had just unleashed, yet it had only sliced open the skin on the dragon's belly, inflicting such a shallow gash that even the flesh beyond its skin hadn't been harmed.

The flight of dragons instantly became more hostile and enraged at the sight of one of their brethren being injured, as if they had just witnessed something unacceptable, and they were so furious that even the color of their pupils was changing. A series of winding blood vessels quickly became visible on the surface of their giant yellow pupils, and around a dozen of the flying dragons immediately flew toward Count Friar, surrounding him from all directions.

In contrast with the enormous flying dragons around him, Count Friar was made to look extremely tiny and vulnerable.

...

However, before the dragons had a chance to vent their flaming wrath upon Count Friar, they were all distracted by something else.

"Humbling Heaven and Earth!" Golden radiance lit up from Cameron's Wish sword once again, and it began to give off a devastating burst of sword intent. The dazzling golden light quickly encompassed the entire sky, completely outshining the light of the sun, and everyone on the battlefield instantly had their attention drawn to him.

In the face of this almighty blow, even Lazaar didn't dare to oppose it head-on, and he immediately took evasive measures. Thankfully, he was able to position his own sword in front of himself as a shield just in the nick of time before the golden radiance arrived, but even so, around a dozen small gashes were still inflicted onto his body by the sword energy released by the attack.

However, the dozen or so flying dragons were far less fortunate. With their enormous frames, there was no way that they could evade the oncoming attack, and thus, they could steel themselves and pray that their physical bodies would be powerful enough to weather the storm.

After the burst of golden radiance flashed through the air, green blood began to rain down from the heavens amid deafening roars of excruciating pain from the flying dragons.

Some of the dragons had their wings severed, causing them to plummet out of the sky. Some of the dragons had their bellies sliced open, with internal organs and different bodily fluids gushing out of the wounds. Some of the dragons had their heads cleanly sliced off, revealing their giant dragon brains, and every single crevice on those brains was clearly visible.

This was the might of the king, and even the most fearsome of magic beasts were powerless in the face of the king's regal power.

"Fleeting Eternity!" Taking advantage of the moment that Cameron was taking to catch his breath after unleashing that devastating attack, Lazaar paid no heed to the wounds that he had just sustained as he thrust his sword directly toward Cameron's chest.

Radiant white light began to glow from the blade of the Bai Ze sword, and it was piercing through the air with sufficient force to split mountains and part seas, but even so, Cameron was still able to block the attack with authority.

Even though his lips had become quite pale from exertion, there was still a mocking gleam in Cameron's eyes as he looked at Lazaar, but his expression then instantly stiffened at the sight of the sinister and triumphant smile that had appeared on Lazaar's face.

The reason for Lazaar's triumphant expression was that a burst of red sword energy had already reached Cameron from behind.

Cameron was entirely invested in defending himself against Lazaar, and he was unable to protect his own back at the same time.

Thus, Gilgen's Zhu Yan blade pierced ruthlessly into his body from behind.

"From this day forth, King Cameron will be no more!" General Gilgen yelled in a triumphant voice.

Cameron stared blankly at the tip of the Zhu Yan sword that was protruding out of his chest, seemingly unable to believe his own eyes. He couldn't even remember the last time that he had sustained any injury in battle, let alone such a lethal one.

"Your Majesty!" Count Friar was furious to see this, and he immediately rushed toward Cameron with his spear in his hand. However, Lazaar quickly turned around to face him, standing in his path and preventing him from reaching Cameron.

"Father!" Onean yelled in a panicked and grief-stricken voice, and she immediately withdrew her spell before flying toward Cameron, even while Lana's Shadowgleam Sword Array was still hot on her heels.

Erwin knew that the situation had become extremely serious, and he also wanted to rush onto the scene with a space split technique, only to be stopped in his tracks by Aiden.

"Just because my sister has taken a liking to you doesn't mean that you can do whatever you please on this battlefield," Aiden said in a cold voice as he raised his halberd and pointed it directly at Erwin.

Erwin could see that Aiden was no longer intent on killing him, but at the same time, it was clear that he wasn't going to allow Erwin to go anywhere. However, Erwin wasn't the type of person who would submissively allow himself to be contained, and he immediately unleashed several dozen instant-release spells toward Aiden's chest before vanishing on the spot with a space split technique.

However, before he even had a chance to steady himself after emerging from his space split technique, Aiden's halberd was already sweeping toward his back. On this occasion, there wasn't enough time for him to conjure up a localized light shield, so he was struck by the blade of the halberd, which left a long gash on his back.

"Looks like you have a death wish," Aiden remarked in a mocking voice. Despite what he was saying, he had still held back in this attack. After all, her sister was known for holding grudges, and he didn't want to sour their relationship by killing Erwin.

The wound on Erwin's back was so painful that he couldn't even maintain a comfortable standing posture. Even so, he was still glowering viciously at Aiden with an unyielding look in his eyes.

Aiden was the fastest martial artist that Erwin had ever faced by far. Erwin's space split technique was an instantaneous teleportation technique, yet with his sheer speed alone, Aiden was able to match Erwin's space split technique, and that was an extraordinary feat.

Lana took a glance at her calm and relaxed brother, then turned to look at Erwin, who was everything but calm and relaxed. She knew that if things were to continue like this, it wouldn't be long before Erwin fell to Aiden's halberd. With that in mind, she immediately said, "Aiden, go and take care of Onean. I'll handle him."

Aiden turned to Lana with an amused expression, and even though she was doing her best to conceal her concern for Erwin, Aiden knew her far too well to be fooled. "Oh? Are you finally stepping in to save your lover?"

"Stop joking around, Aiden! We're on a battlefield!" Lana snapped in an indignant voice with tightly furrowed brows, trying to put on a display of anger to hide her embarrassment, but the blush that had appeared on her face completely betrayed her emotions.

Aiden was still very much amused, but he didn't tease Lana any further as he abandoned Erwin and set off in pursuit of Onean instead.

Lana stared at Erwin in silence, and even though she wasn't saying anything, the profound emotions in her eyes were enough to express 1,000 words.

However, in this moment, Erwin was feeling extremely insulted, and this feeling was only being exacerbated by the gentle expression of pity and compassion with which Lana was looking at him.

He suddenly realized just how foolish and naive he had been, thinking that she would need him to save her from this battlefield when in reality, he was the one who had to be saved by her. With that in mind, his heart was filled with indignation and self-derision. In this instant, he suddenly thought back to what Lana had said to him that day: "Why couldn't you just leave me alone and live out your life in peace? Why do you insist on putting yourself in harm's way?"

Only now was the meaning of her words becoming clear to him. Back then, she was already alluding to the issues that stood between them. In fact, she had been dropping him subtle hints even earlier than that. During that night when they last had dinner together, he had already sensed that there was something she was hiding from him. However, was it really just a matter of conflicting standpoints?

No, the true problem laid in his own weakness.

He had been far too conceited in thinking that he could actually impact this war, when in reality, he had been living in a naive fantasy this entire time. Such was the paradoxical nature of man. Oftentimes, Erwin would console himself by telling himself that there was no need to become mentally preoccupied with things outside of his control. However, he was unable to follow his own advice here. In the face of a truly powerful adversary, he was so pathetic and weak, to the extent that he was only able to survive because a woman had essentially begged his opponent to spare him. He had felt himself to be a potential hero, but looking at himself now, he realized that he was nothing more than a pitiful clown.

Onean was in a state of great peril, yet he was powerless to do anything. Looking back at Lana, he felt like a complete and utter failure, so much so that was too ashamed to face this world. All of a sudden, countless emotions welled up in his heart, with the most prominent duo being fury and humiliation, and these violently dark emotions were awakening something inside him.

In reality, Erwin was being too harsh on himself. Lana had only said to him what she had said at the time as Prince Lazaar had threatened to kill him if she were to involve herself with him any longer. Having said that, it was also inaccurate to say that Erwin had overanalyzed the meaning of her words.

At its core, the issue was that Erwin was too naive and had oversimplified the concept of wars in his own mind. There was no side that was guaranteed to win, nor any side that was sure to lose. Ultimately, everything could be attributed to Erwin's lack of experience.

However, none of that was going to impact the emotions that were currently surging through his heart.

All of a sudden, all of the indignation and powerlessness piling up in his heart was blown apart by a sense of violent fury and arrogant indifference. Nothing around him had changed, but in his eyes, everything had become so pitiful and pathetic, so much so that he was filled with disdain for everything that he saw.