The identity of the charred corpse was unknown to the battling forces below but once the explosive aftermath in the sky began to fade, the victor became clear.
Every member of the Verlice Combined Forces became imbued with an impressive wave of elation that emboldened their might while their lips stretched into ecstatic smiles.
From somewhere on the battlefield, a Verlice Lieutenant who had been losing against his Arkadae Lieutenant opponent yelled out in his excitement;
"Favor smiles upon us... The Golden Child remains with us! So onward Knights and Arcanists of the Verlice Kingdom and take down the rest of the bastarda who dared storm our Fort!!!"
No one really bothered with the actual words but the tone alone, mixed with their elation did fill them with a renewed zeal.
On the other hand, the Arkadaes were in shock at the turn of events. Their most powerful trump card was dead, his body charring away and they hardly saw a way forward.
It was at this moment that Lieutenant Vernon of the Arkadaes decided to step into the shoes Hernan Vron had voided. He was winning his battle with the three Verlice Lieutenants he was battling and wished to use his capabilities to instill the forces with confidence,
"Hold your ground!" he yelled, "The battle is not yet lost!"
"It is!" yelled Anetta, her blade dripping with the blood of the Lieutenant she had been battling— A Lieutenant who had fallen at her feet, with his neck slashed.
Anetta had just watched a member of the Vron family, her family, lose his life, and when faced with a perfectly healthy Astrid Renan, she felt there was hardly a chance they could turn this around.
She knew what Hernan was capable of— Knew what he had been gifted when they were about to set out for this expedition and if that had not been enough to as much as injure Astrid, it was only a matter of time before everyone else lost their lives. The faster they ran, the more likely some of their numbers would still survive.
"Retreat!" Anetta yelled, "Everyone, fall back!"
Anetta did not have to work hard to convince the humans and monsters still alive and fighting on the Arkadaes' side. Morale was at an all-time low.
The thought of retreating in disgrace left a poor taste in Vernon's mouth but of course, he saw reason and he joined the running forces.
"Where do you think you're going?" Asked one of the three Verlice Lieutenants Vernon had been battling as they all tried their best to hold him down right where he was.
Annoyed that they were still foolish enough to try to kill him, Vernon decided he might as well finish what he already started before going on his way.
"Since you don't know your place—!" he started to say before a pillar of brilliant light descended from the sky like Divine justice. As though he had annoyed a god who sorely wished to see his end.
That might as well be the case and when Astrid's spell faded, Vernon's body remained frozen mid-motion. His flesh was burnt and his tendons were melted to his bones that were already cracking under the pressure of the flames that burned them.
Without bothering to do a headcount, Anetta looked upward to glare at Astrid with hate and as she did, she saw Astrid congeal yet another pillar of glorious light having picked her as the next target she wished to annihilate.
With her hand coated with Spiritual energy that boosted her physical strength, Anetta crushed the orb in her hand and it blasted out its encased silver light that covered her and those who had heeded her call and got closest to her, with a silver orb seen for barely a second before it vanished from the scene, causing Astrid's pillar attack to strike aimlessly at the ground.
Astrid stretched out her senses and she knew immediately that the Orb had not teleported her enemies. Rather it was imbued with the Arcane powers of an Expert who seemed to have reached the peak of the Eight Circle and might have even surpassed it.
It was a spell that required grand preparation that involved the designation of a destination and travel to that destination was faster than any movement spell, any flight speed, or even the Spiritual perception of any expert not well into the Ninth Order.
An emergency escape spell.
'I wonder if any others were entrusted with such a powerful survival tool,' Astrid thought, glancing at the damaged but still functional ring on Vernon's finger. She didn't bother glancing at Hernan as his ring as well as any other accessories he might have had were already incinerated to dust in his self-caused suicidal explosion.
"Commander," one of the Lieutenants called.
Astrid turned her eyes to them all looking at her with expectant expressions and frowned,
"What are you standing around for?" she asked and then glanced at the still struggling-to-find-a-chance-at-survival human and Monster forces whom she waved at with nonchalance while giving her forces her command,
"Kill them all."
And so they did.
•••
Eliminating the rest of the Arkadae human/Monster races took all of Ten minutes after which Astrid gave orders that allowed Knights to scour the Forest for hideouts the Monsters and humans who had managed to run before she set up her perimeter of flames, could have run to.
The plan was to eliminate as much of the threat to the Western Fort as they possibly could while instilling fear into the hearts of the Monster races to think better of allying with Arkadae for another 'foolish' attempt at breaking through the Verlice Kingdom's barriers.
Evian was lying on the ground, resting after what had been a long night. Ember and Carleine were by his sides, cross-legged in Spiritual energy recovery but they stopped when Evian let out a chuckle and then burst out into boisterous laughter.
And why would he not laugh?
His plan had worked perfectly and as the Verlice Kingdom's Combined forces celebrated a victory even as they scoured for enemy hideyholes...
[Balance: 6,650,000 Soul Points]
... He was undoubtedly the biggest winner of all.