The Lamanites did not come back into the land northward until 375 A.D., but they came back like a horde of poisonous serpents. So many came swarming back into the land northward that the Nephites could not even number them. A great battle was fought at the city of Desolation where the Nephites were driven from the city and the survivors tried in every way to escape. In verse 18 Mormon says this was the turning point of the great genocidal civil war that would not end until 385 A.D. when the Nephites would become practically extinct.