A beam of light cut through the strong winds, revealing the ruins hidden by the sandstorm.

The man looked at the sinkhole before him, his solemn expression deepening, then he looked up at the sky, where the city walls, now reduced to dust, could no longer obscure the figure.

He did not rashly launch an attack, as he could not be sure how much strength the youth had left after unleashing that attack.

However, even if he did not actively attack, Liens and the others would not let him go.

"Clang!"

The man's sword blocked the sudden assault.

Looking at Lucrezia, who seemed to have emerged from a dream, the man's expression grew even uglier.

He had not been very certain before, but seeing this woman, it was basically confirmed that the youth in the sky was indeed a member of the rebel army.

Although he had not had direct contact, after eliminating some known rebel members, the man quickly identified Liens.

"Is he the knight who gravely wounded Lord Alfred back then?"

The man mused inwardly, his vigilance rising rapidly.

Without any hesitation, a phantom image of a mountain appeared on his body, and then heavy earth elements surged into it, making the mountain appear as if it were a truly existing entity.

A heavy pressure instantly spread out, and for a moment, it was as if a real mountain had descended upon the place.

Facing two opponents of the same rank, one of whom might be much stronger than himself, the man naturally did not dare to be negligent in the slightest, immediately adopting a defensive stance, intending to stall until reinforcements arrived.

Not to mention the already shattered city-guarding ritual, just the commotion from earlier would have been impossible for others not to notice.

As long as he held on for a little while, Lord Alfred and the others would be able to arrive, and by then, these two who had caused such destruction to Baker City might not even be able to escape.

"General Marshall is as cautious as ever."

A greeting, as if meeting a long-lost friend, rang out.

Lucrezia stepped lightly, walking on the ruins, her delicate and elegant figure like a lotus emerging from the mud, forming a stark contrast with the surrounding devastation.

"Lucrezia, you had best not continue to be so stubborn. The Kingdom will sooner or later eradicate the rebel army, and by then, your fate will certainly not be good.

Therefore, you had best surrender now; considering you are a princess, His Majesty will consider lenient treatment for you."

Marshall said to Lucrezia with a serious expression.

"What a lot of nonsense. Is General Marshall trying to buy time?"

Lucrezia chuckled lightly, directly exposing Marshall's intention.

Marshall gave no response to this, only casting a grave glance at the figure who had been standing in the air without any movement.

Compared to Lucrezia, he was more concerned about the youthful knight; in his opinion, only this youth had the ability to directly break through his defenses.

As for Lucrezia, she was merely a pretty face, a plaything that men would eventually toy with, what was there to…

A cold gleam flashed, and his body's instinctive perception of a fatal crisis caused Marshall to instinctively shift his body at the critical moment, dodging the fatal blow.

"Ah…"

Marshall suppressed the scream in his throat, enduring the intense pain and blindness in his right eye, and swung his sword to repel Lucrezia.

Then, he immediately used elements to seal the wound, while simultaneously activating more power to condense and cover himself with a more comprehensive defense.

After doing all this, Marshall opened his left eye, still bloodshot, and looked at Lucrezia with an unusually grave expression.

He recalled Ralph's description of Lucrezia's bizarre illusions a few days ago.

He had thought he had guarded his mind, but he had still been affected at some unknown point, relaxing his defenses, which led to his right eye being blinded, yet he hadn't even touched the corner of her clothes.

This extremely unfavorable start made him inexplicably have a bad premonition.

He… wouldn't he die here?

"Alas, General Marshall is truly careless. How did he suddenly blind himself? How can he continue to lead the army like this?"

"Why don't I send the General off a little further?"

Lucrezia chuckled again, and an invisible ripple spread out.

But Marshall, who had been constantly watching her, did not feel the energy ripple that had already invaded his flesh and spirit.

As her words fell, in an instant, Marshall suddenly felt an extremely heavy pressure coming from above. Looking up, he saw a very familiar greatsword suspended in the air.

"Impossible!"

Marshall's eyes widened, his pupils constricted, his face filled with an expression of disbelief, shouting "Impossible" from his mouth.

But as the greatsword descended rapidly, the pressure he felt on his body grew stronger and stronger, and the surrounding air seemed to solidify into a stone wall, fixing him in place.

He began to believe in his heart, to believe that the sword was real, and a hint of imperceptible despair began to show in his eyes, and his hands, which had always gripped his longsword tightly, seemed to loosen slightly at this moment.

And just as he was about to be cut down by the greatsword descending from the sky, a voice like a clap of thunder rang in his ear.

"It's fake, Marshall, that's fake, you must remember, that's fake!!!"

Ralph, who had just arrived at the scene, no longer had time to pull the stunned Marshall out of the greatsword's attack range; he could only use "Amplification" to awaken and remind Marshall with his voice.

After that battle with Lucrezia a few days ago, he had been replaying it and carefully analyzing Lucrezia's illusions.

Although he still hadn't figured out the principle of that magic, he had begun to understand a little about the mechanism of that illusion.

The key was belief; the more you believed in or accepted Lucrezia's illusions, the more effective her illusions would be on you. Conversely, they would just be very ordinary attacks.

Therefore, the key was Marshall himself; otherwise, even if he used Earthwalk to take Marshall into the earth veins, it wouldn't significantly reduce the damage of that move on Marshall.

Ralph's shouts woke Marshall, and he realized he had fallen for Lucrezia's illusion again.

But now was not the time to focus on that, but to desperately resist the greatsword that had completely covered his entire vision, as if divine punishment had descended.

Although he also understood Ralph's reminder that as long as he firmly believed it was fake, the problem wouldn't be too big.

However, he was different from the hastily arrived Ralph; he was on the scene, he had faced that sword directly, and he had truly experienced death being only a dozen meters away from him.

If he had been a little closer to the city wall at that time, he might now be part of the dust flying everywhere, like those soldiers.

Therefore, he could not completely deny Lucrezia's illusion.

What truly made him believe in the existence of that greatsword, what truly made him feel fear, was not Lucrezia, but that god-like indifferent youth.

"Boom!"