Hero War I

Just before Dagal falls to Dark Armor, Lacid arrives with the Sky Fortress and instantly drives out the attackers, returning as the alliance's new hope. He tries to persuade Koon Greer of the Four Heavenly Kings to come home to Pandragon, but she refuses to listen — though not before letting slip that Iyolin might still be alive. Lacid vows to save his sister.

Learning that pirates have been colluding with the Granada Merchant Guild, Arcion asks Kaja to arrange a meeting with its head, Karim. Elsewhere, word reaches Landam that his homeland Astania is in danger; he rushes back, mobilizes Garius, and saves Pope Rubens — who, grateful, grants him permission to keep piloting it. As Lacid's party works out how to help Astania, Arcion arrives with the Machina Arbalest, becoming Silver Arrow's newest asset.

In Cutis, the Resistance learns Arcia is about to be publicly executed and moves to rescue him — successfully, reviving their dream of liberating Cutis for good. When Silver Arrow arrives as reinforcements, Arcia launches the operation at once, and Cutis is reclaimed.

Elsewhere, Baekokdang finally catches up to Nangcheon, the man he's long believed killed his teacher GwakNo, and challenges him to a duel — and loses. Nangcheon insists he didn't do it, leaving Baekokdang shaken and the mystery reopened rather than closed.

To drive Irus out of Astania, Silver Arrow deploys its three first-class Machina together: Lacid in Arondite, Arcion in Arbalest, and Landam in Garius. The combined assault succeeds, and with Astania reclaimed, Lacid's party turns straight to Cutis.

Purged by Beradin and unable to return to the Empire, Vincent Bernstein has nowhere left to go — and neither does Gishne, who's spent this whole stretch investigating Beradin undercover. The two of them formally join Silver Arrow.

This is where the Empire's counterattack into Dagal and Astania — led by two of the Four Imperial Guardians, Koon Greer and Irus — finally breaks against the rebuilt alliance. With Heaven's Castle's supply lines, Arondite reborn, and Kashmir fully committed, Silver Arrow drives back Imperial forces in every region the two Guardians contest; Irus specifically is the one driven out by the joint Lacid/Arcion/Landam assault, not by Lacid alone.

Koon's Pandragon origins — a Pandragon-born witch who defected after believing her master Cameo abandoned her — make Lacid's personal appeal for her to come home land as more than a throwaway scene, and her tip about Iyolin gives him a reason to trust she wasn't entirely lost to the Empire, even as she refuses him. Landam boarding Garius to save Pope Rubens pays off both his established closeness with Rubens and Astania's Templar-only claim on that Machina. And "A New Ally" is the payoff of the Vincent Bernstein/Kleiner thread running since Chapter 6.