"It's like this..."

I had no choice but to explain Cyra's injury situation all over again.

"This is indeed troublesome, but luckily it's just a minor issue. As long as we go to the Astralrealm Kingdom, it should be resolved smoothly,"

Elara nodded as she responded.

"The Astralrealm Kingdom is also one of the more human nations to us. Plus, they tend to revere angels highly. You won't even need to report my name, just go directly to the palace in Norvale and you can meet with the king. With the magical ability of their court magicians, I believe they should be willing to help with this small favour."

"So does that mean I can finally leave Edenmere and go to the outside world?"

Cyra was immediately excited to hear this. Since the other party hadn't mentioned the four-winged bet at all, it meant she wouldn't have to be troubled by advancing in rank anymore.

"This is a special circumstance. Nicola had also brought up this issue with me before. If it was yesterday, I might have insisted on keeping you here. But after this demon invasion, I don't feel right insisting Edenmere is safe either, so letting you go out with them could be a better choice."

Elara's attitude had changed a lot. It seemed the impact of this incident had been quite significant on her.

"But before that, there are still many things to do. For example, you mentioned Reed just now - I'm currently gathering troops to rescue them from the Dark Continent. You should know, there were also many demons attacking the tournament grounds outside the city..."

"Rescue them? Don't tell me Reed got captured by the demons?"

I was greatly shocked. Is that why only Nicola came back?

When the city was teleported to the Dark Continent, the 'Lake District' on the Dark Continent got swapped to Edenmere along with the 'Eye of Galadra' control terminal.

Michelle definitely wouldn't have just sent an empty Lake District over. She must have brought over a good number of demons. There were also many angels attending and spectating the tournament finals on the forest clearing outside the city then.

Compared to the depleted forces within the city walls, those angels outside posed real trouble for the demons. So working with Yvonne and the other traitor angels to take out these obstacles first would be crucial.

I just didn't know why they had failed.

From Michelle's reaction when the city sky suddenly lit up earlier, it was obvious the return swap of Edenmere was completely unexpected for her. Subsequent events further proved this, since Nicola and many angels were able to return smoothly, and even helped resolve the demon invasion within the city.

But I didn't think it was all thanks to Nicola's efforts because Michelle had suffered at Nicola's hands before. She couldn't have overlooked Nicola's existence when making her plans and had likely prepared Yvonne and the other angel traitors specifically to counter her.

Thinking back to when I had just returned from Reed's place last night and bumped into Jeanette in the Royal Hall. She had specifically mentioned Nicola then, likely worried that her return to the city would foil Michelle's plans to assassinate Elara.

So was the actual situation like this: Nicola and the other angels repelled the demons attacking the tournament grounds, as well as the conservative angel traitors like Yvonne. But the lower ranked angels like Reed were unfortunately captured, forcing the demons to retreat early using the Eye?

It felt like something didn't add up still...

"No, she wasn't captured by the demons,"

Elara shook her head, denying my guess. But her next words made me feel it was a little fantastical.

"On the contrary, based on the reports of angels who returned from outside the city, as well as Nicola's account, their battle at the tournament grounds went fairly smoothly. They suffered minimal losses and annihilated all the enemies. They even counterattacked to seize control of the whole island and observation tower, otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to reinforce this quickly."

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"No way... Don't tell me Michelle didn't even send much force to the other side?"

I was completely dumbfounded. The situation had gone completely beyond my expectations.

"How was it easy, it was extremely tiring for me okay! And there were a considerable number of demons too!"

Nicola leaned back against the sofa with a helpless look, rebutting,

"When the entire Lake District got teleported over, the central island and the paths leading to it were all crammed full of demons, all at least fourth-rank or higher.

"Coupled with those conservative angels who suddenly defected, they were extremely troublesome to deal with, especially since there were two ten-winged angels among them. They all specifically targeted me, including Yvonne I met previously. If we fought them head-on, it would've been extremely difficult even with the Condensation Sword."

"So... some powerful reinforcements appeared at the critical moment?"

I was even more confused now. If it was so difficult to handle, what happened then?

But within Edenmere, aside from angels, there shouldn't have been anyone who could play the role of powerful reinforcements right? Those elves in the forests definitely couldn't.

"There were no reinforcements either. It was because the opponent didn't expect we had Reed as our secret weapon..."

"Reed?"

I hadn't even spoken yet when Cyra cried out in surprise first. Her jaw practically dropped to the floor.

"She's the same as me with only two wings, so how did she become the secret weapon?"

"I'm guessing my expression was probably the same as yours when I heard it the first time..."

Seeing our reactions, Elara gave a wry smile and asked back.

"Do you still remember the unique magic Reed created?"

"What was it called again?"

Hearing that, I immediately looked to Nicola and Cyra for help. After all, it had been so long I couldn't remember the name anymore.

"It's called 'Five Lights Ten Colors'!"

Nicola sighed and answered.

"Back then, we also couldn't remember the name of the magic like you guys. As a result, we got smacked in the face by that nauseating magic again... Of course, it wasn't just me affected. All the friends and foes present were incapacitated."

"It's really that powerful? Uh..."

Instinctively, I still harboured some doubt, but recalling the sensation I experienced back then, I didn't doubt it anymore.

"Alright! But even if all sides were incapacitated, just Reed alone probably couldn't have handled that many demons right?"

"At least during the previous times experiencing that magic, it was basically impossible to resist its effects. Before the second 'Five Light Ten Colors' began, Reed already informed me and some other angels to close our eyes in advance. So next came the one-sided slaughter time..."

Nicola spread her hands explaining,

"But even so, there were simply too many enemies to kill them one by one. Plus, the demons at the back couldn't experience the magic's effects due to obstruction of vision. Hence, Reed took out a large stack of magic scrolls, all filled with stored advanced magics. Releasing them created consecutive beams, bombarding all the way. The vast majority of demons didn't even have time to leave the island before dying at her hands."

"Lost Paradise Shockwave?"

Hearing her description, I immediately called out the magic's name. After practicing it daily for a while recently, I'd be an idiot not to recognize it. But even so, it was enough to astonish me greatly.

"Where did she get so many advanced magics? Don't tell me she already learned how to cast them herself. But even if she did, given a two-wing's level, wouldn't it take an extremely long time to store that many 'Lost Paradise Shockwaves'? I don't remember seeing her practice this magic before either!"

Even at my six-wing level, I could barely unleash it twice. With Reed's level, her mana would probably be depleted after one cast. Even if she slowly stored more after recovering, the time and effort spent would be considerable. That's not to mention the issue of chanting that I don't know how she overcame.

"She said it was an eight-winged angel who came to find her recently to get magic arrays tattooed in exchange for helping her store a hundred advanced magics for self-defence reserves."

"A hundred!"

This time, it was Elara's turn to be shocked. She nearly leapt up from her seat.

"That's unleashing advanced magic a full hundred times!"

I naturally knew who that eight-winged angel was. I also felt it was too exaggerated. Wouldn't even an eight-wing be exhausted from that?

Frankly, it was practically exploitation! Even my total practice count of "Lost Paradise Shockwave" probably didn't reach that high.

"It's not like she's the one eating that bitterness anyway, it was a willing buyer and willing seller,"

Nicola responded with an indifferent attitude.

"As for those unaffected conservative angels, they were gathered up and imprisoned within magic cages. After Edenmere got swapped back, they've already been handed over to other angels in the city to deal with."

"Magic cages?"

I was rather curious. What magic cages were so powerful that they could even contain ten-winged angels? And more than just one.

"Magic cages is actually just similar in principle as those gas collection spheres I gave you previously. Reed modified them by enlarging that small black sphere in the middle into a gigantic hollow sphere. What's contained inside is no longer gas but angels instead."

After a simple reminder from her, I understood. So it was those things! No wonder then. Something that could withstand the pressure to induce nuclear fusion in hydrogen could surely contain just some angels.

As for subsequent events, it naturally followed -

Nicola and the others occupied the island and observation tower, then controlled the "Eye of Galadra" console terminal I saw previously.

While we may not have understood how to use that console back then, Reed probably did. Hence, she and some other angels stayed on the island while swapping Edenmere city back. But they themselves stayed in the Dark Continent. That was why Elara thought to gather troops for a rescue mission.