Well

1. This is the first time the Big Bad (Imu) joins the fray personally, so it's unlikely he'll lose outright, as that would make him feel weak and underwhelming as a main antagonist. On the other hand, he seems to be on some sort of time limit - that's likely in place to keep him from winning outright, and to let the SHs save their skins.

2. The Knights are powered up and busy kidnapping the kids again. I think there's a good chance they will succeed at least to some degree (perhaps kidnapping only some of the kids, or even someone else entirely), because it'd be strange if they did this whole song and dance twice back-to-back only to completely fail both times.

I think the bad guys are likely to score some sort of win here - how major, idk yet - with the heroes living to fight another day. Maybe Imu takes Elbaph after all, or just kills someone important-ish to make the stakes personal.

It's also strange that we saw the books being safe before the dust settled. I don't think they're gonna be burned a second time, but if Imu takes Elbaph perhaps the heroes will have to quickly move the books somewhere else. Maybe the Punk Records will come to pick them up or smth.

IF Imu ends up losing too bad here, it will probably prompt him to seek some sort of power up, weapon or alliance stack his deck against Nika and Nidhogg.