Law of Space and Time

Even though the mountain path had been destroyed, Francis knew the terrain of Xeto like the back of his own hand, and with the torch in his hand alone, he was able to find a suitable route for his troops to march along. Furthermore, the location that all of the spells from the airship were raining down toward provided Francis with a good approximation of where the Skycourt Kingdom's troops were.

He was a very experienced commander, and he knew that the Skycourt Kingdom's mercenaries had to have employed some type of method to conceal their forces within the darkness. Thus, he didn't advance his troops recklessly, choosing instead to slowly approach the enemy while instructing his archers to fire at them from afar.

The Skycourt Kingdom's mercenaries were already panicking, and many of them were beginning to flee. Now that the soldiers of Xeto were no more than 100 meters away, even more panic was starting to set in.

Unfortunately for them, the newly constructed log path was too narrow to facilitate a large-scale retreat, and in addition to that, everyone was clambering to retreat back the same way they had come, so the log path quickly became extremely congested, and many more of the Skycourt Kingdom's mercenaries were trampled to death by their own comrades as a result. This was the main disadvantage for mercenary legions fighting as one. They had no commander to whom everyone answered, and as soon as one person decided to retreat, everyone would quickly begin to retreat. This lack of discipline and direction was why Larwood and Erwin didn't fear them, even though they had tens of thousands of troops among their ranks.

Judging from the commotion ringing out on the mountain, Francis could already tell that the Skycourt Kingdom's mercenaries were retreating in a blind panic. Thus, he immediately led his troops to give chase, while the spells raining down from the airship in the sky acted as a beacon for them.

Meanwhile, the outcome of the battle taking place in the sky above was still undecided. In contrast with the Skycourt Kingdom mercenaries on the log path down below, the Skycourt Kingdom martial artists in the sky were displaying incredible teamwork. Their target was very clear: they were going to kill the astonishingly powerful female magician at all costs. They were so determined to do this that they completely disregarded Larwood and the others, and all of them were charging toward the radiance being emitted by Onean's staff with single-minded determination like moths to a flame.

Erwin knew that he couldn't continue to just dart around and unleash sneak attacks from the side. He unleashed a space split technique to take him to the very center of the light source, then shielded Onean's body with his own. These assassins were determined to kill Onean, even if it cost them their lives, and in the face of their fierce determination, Erwin raised his staff and immediately conjured up his light shield to encompass both himself and Onean.

As a result, the illumination spell from Onean's staff was finally cut off as no matter could escape from the light shield. The light radiating from the outer wall of the light shield wasn't as bright as that of Onean's illumination spell, but it was still enough to light up the battlefield in the sky.

Erwin could feel Onean heave a faint sigh of relief from behind him, following which she began to pant slightly. It was clear that releasing several advanced spells in a row and having to fight these assassins had expended a lot of her stamina and magic power.

However, in this situation, he had no spare capacity to worry about Onean. The surrounding Skycourt Kingdom martial artists were so intent on getting to Onean that they were attacking his light shield as if they had gone insane, frantically unleashing their most powerful attacks one after another without any thought for stamina conservation.

There was no way that Erwin could withstand so many powerful attacks at once, and he immediately gave a muffled groan as countless bursts of chaotic, destructive energy began to surge into his light shield in a frenzy. The energy unleashed by the weapons of the Skycourt Kingdom martial artists was like a pack of deranged hunting dogs that were looking to sink their fangs into anything and everything, and Erwin was struck by a rush of dizziness with each passing attack. Soon, he was feeling so disoriented that he was forced to close his own eyes. Whenever he tried to open his eyes, he would feel unsteady on his feet and be overcome by a wave of intense nausea, as if he were suffering from severe seasickness. Most damning of all was the fact that he could feel blood flowing profusely out of the corners of his eyes, which were in so much pain that he was unable to even open them anymore.

His body also began to spasm uncontrollably as if he were suffering from a seizure, and it was clear that so much energy had already surged into Erwin's body from the light shield that he was no longer able to control his own bodily functions. Despite that, he had to continue to maintain his output of magic power and stamina to support the light shield. If he were to relax even a little, he and Onean would be placed in grave peril.

With his final shred of lucidity, Erwin shrank the light shield inward a little in order to slow down the rate at which the chaotic energy was surging into his body. This was a method that he had employed during his match against Shaun in the Pillow Sword Tournament, but he had never used it since. This was because the closer the energy was to him, the less cushion there would be when the energy struck his body once he withdrew the light shield, and if the energy were too destructive and there was insufficient cushion, then he could be instantly killed on the spot. Furthermore, Shaun had only been a single advanced magician from Pucil Academy, while on this occasion, he was facing a whole host of powerful martial artists from the Skycourt Kingdom.

"Are you an idiot? Why..." Onean could naturally also sense the violent energy surging erratically throughout the space within the light shield. She was looking at Erwin with a concerned expression as blood continued to flow down from the corners of his eyes, and she was about to denounce him for his idiocy, but she simply couldn't bring herself to do so, and all she could do was dab at the cold sweat on his forehead with her sleeve.

Meanwhile, the light shield was continuing to shrink, and at this point, he and Onean were already pressed tightly against each other within it.

On the brink of unconsciousness, Erwin murmured in a dreamy voice, "You smell so good..."

At the same time, he was wondering if those were going to be his last words.

Larwood could see that Erwin was in an extremely perilous situation, and he knew that he couldn't afford to delay any longer. Thus, he abandoned all defenses and allowed his opponent's blade to sink into his shoulder, then unleashed an all-out retaliative strike to kill his opponent with a single blow. After that, he turned to Georgina and the others and frantically yelled, "Go and help Her Highness and Erwin!"

As soon as all of the Skycourt Kingdom mercenaries present heard the words "Your Highness", they were immediately rooted to the spot, and even the assassins who were frantically attacking Erwin's light shield had stopped what they were doing. It was as if they were unable to understand what they had just heard, or they were wondering whether they had misheard altogether.

Your Highness? Does that mean that female magician is the princess of the Effer Kingdom? The same question sprang into the minds of all of the Skycourt Kingdom mercenaries. However, having witnessed her unfathomably powerful display of magic earlier during the day, everyone was quickly willing to accept the notion that she was indeed the Effer Kingdom's princess. In that case, their strategy had to change. Mercenaries pursued profit above all else, and capturing the Effer Kingdom's princess alive would undoubtedly fetch them more ransom from the Effer Kingdom than the reward from the Skycourt Kingdom for killing the princess.

Thus, all of the Skycourt Kingdom mercenaries outside the light shield began to look at one another, at a complete loss for what to do. Even the mercenary legion commanders among them were feeling a little dazed. After all, no one had any idea of exactly how many Loonies the princess of a kingdom to fetch, and there also had to be much discussion with regard to how the ransom money was going to be distributed.

In this situation, one had to be impressed by this ingenious ploy that Larwood had cooked up on the spot. He had intentionally blown Onean's cover, and as a result, all of the Skycourt Kingdom's mercenaries were unable to figure out what to do.

Meanwhile, inside the light shield, Erwin's consciousness was just about to fade when his eyes abruptly sprang wide open, and blood immediately began to squirt out of his eyes, as well as flow down from his nostrils and the corners of his mouth. He stared blankly at Onean, looking into her gorgeous yet teary eyes, which seemed to be filled with a myriad of emotions, the most prominent of which were concern and sympathy.

Erwin continued to look at her with a cold expression, and an apathetic look had suddenly appeared in his blood-filled eyes. This wasn't a sense of apathy and indifference toward life and death. Instead, he had become apathetic to all things in this world, looking down on all human emotions with disdain. He could even sense a burst of intense shame and fury rising up within his own heart, as if receiving sympathy from someone else was the utmost insult to him. He became filled with contempt toward his own weak and vulnerable body, and he was also infuriated by the fact that he could be burdened by emotions like shame. The violent fury and cold apathy in his heart were like two opposing forces that refused to back down, brawling with one another while trampling all over his consciousness and his sense of reason with reckless abandon.

At this point, Erwin's body was no longer trembling. However, the sight of blood flowing down half his face was quite a harrowing one to behold, and his lips were spasming violently, occasionally arranging themselves into a cold and sinister smile, while his eyes were flashing interchangeably between emotions of thunderous fury and frosty apathy.

Onean had never seen this side of Erwin before, and she was looking on with a concerned and horrified expression, feeling as if Erwin had turned into someone completely unfamiliar to her.

Erwin turned his own head around with great difficulty to inspect the scenes unfolding outside of his light shield, with emotions of intrigue and bloodlust switching back and forth over and over again in his eyes. He then carefully sensed the stationary time within the light shield, watching as the inner wall of the light shield compressed further and further. All of a sudden, all types of ideas pertaining to space and time suddenly emerged in his mind. All of the scenes from the Pillow Sword Tournament in which he had used his space split technique and light shield during battle began to flash through his mind, as did the space-time rift that had emerged during his battle against Talan. In the process, he was becoming more and more familiar with the model of intertwinement between space and time, but it could also be said that the concept was becoming more and more unfamiliar to him.