"What about the other rebellious angels?"

Nicola was also stunned. She had worked so hard to bring back so many prisoners, yet only this one was left.

"They all suffocated to death..."

"Suffocated to death?"

I was also dumbfounded. I didn't expect angels could die this way. But I soon realized—

The magical prison Reed made was hastily adapted from a gas-collecting ball. Gas-collecting balls can collect gases precisely because they isolate the inside from outside air.

But using it to hold those angels may not be so suitable, because angels need to breathe too! Without air exchange with the outside, it's no wonder they all suffocated after being thrown in together.

As for Yvonne, she survived purely thanks to the superior physique of a ten-winged angel. There was even an element of luck since I remember there was more than one rebellious ten-winged angel.

"But why is there still a need for this energy isolation barrier?"

Cyra still didn't quite understand.

"Now that they're already locked in the cage, even if they can fly, we're underground anyway so how could they escape?"

I had the same question. Glancing back at where we came from, I saw that the inside of the energy isolation barrier was a concave mirror. It was precisely because of these mirrored surfaces reflecting every bit of light that the torch lighting inside the prison was much brighter than outside.

"Nicola can explain the specifics! After all, she was the one who told us we must do this. I've only heard about the actual situation, never saw it myself."

Elara quickly passed the buck.

"It's because we encountered a strange incident at the tournament arena. That's why we have to take precautions..."

As soon as Nicola heard, she readily explained:

"I mentioned earlier that Reed used magic scrolls to eliminate many monsters. But when dealing with these angels who are immune to magic, she ran into problems. With no other choice, she hastily adopted the magical principles of a gas-collecting ball and created this magical prison to hold the traitors. But then an accident happened—one of the rebellious angels somehow found a loophole in the 'Five Light Ten Color' spell, pretending to faint on the ground before suddenly attacking Reed. Fortunately, Mia protected her in time, but unfortunately, her wings were injured."

"Wings?"

Hearing her, we immediately looked towards Mia's back, only to see that her four pairs of wings were nearly sheared off on the right side. The clean cuts came from a sword, only now they were all wrapped in bandages.

"Wow—so your wings broke too!"

Cyra went behind Mia and exclaimed. She had suffered the same misfortune, with the right wings also injured and rendered flightless.

"Oh—so your wings broke too!"

Mia naturally saw Cyra's condition as well. Fellow angels fallen from grace, they let out identical laments.

"Nicola, what happened next?"

I didn't want to see these two sympathizing. I wouldn't even feel surprised if they suddenly started dancing together...

"Next... Of course, I took over next, fought her with my Condensation Sword, hoping to take her out quickly."

But from Nicola's attitude, it seemed she didn't really want to talk about what happened after.

"But her movements were extremely agile, I just couldn't hit her!"

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Condensation Sword? You used the Condensation Sword yet still couldn't beat her?"

I was genuinely surprised to hear this. Even if Nicola's swordsmanship wasn't brilliant, relying on the sharpness of the Condensation Sword, the opponent would almost certainly be killed or gravely wounded if they tried to parry.

The only weapon I knew of right now that could withstand the Condensation Sword was Michelle's sword, Hephaestus.

In fact, based on my previous experience, even Hephaestus probably wasn't as sharp as the Condensation Sword.

"Could she also be a ten-winged angel?"

Cyra guessed. That was probably the only possibility.

"No, she was a six-winged angel like me. And she even told me her name."

Nicola shook her head and answered.

"A six-winged angel? Who exactly?"

I was incredulous. Even six-winged angels were instantly killed by Nicola with the Condensation Sword. Just who could be so preposterously strong?

"She said her name was Aria and kept taunting and ridiculing me! Said I was all false fame, unworthy of my third place title in the swordsmanship tournament, just trash compared to Feliciana!"

Speaking of this, Nicola was angered again. Clenching her fists with a look of gritted teeth hatred.

"That scumbag, even if I have to search the whole world I'll find her and drag her out!"

"No way, she brought me into it too?"

Of course, I remembered who Aria was—publicly recognized as a genius among the last generation of newborn angels, skilled in both swordsmanship and magic! We'd parted on bad terms not long ago because she insisted on learning fast spellcasting from me. I just didn't expect she would be on the conservative side.

"You let her get away?"

Since Cyra didn't know Aria, her focus was different from mine.

"Weren't all the other rebellious angels knocked out by the 'Five Light Ten Colors'? How could you let her get away?"

"That's the crux of the issue. Aria didn't get away, she disappeared!"

"Disappeared?"

I was even more confused hearing Nicola's account.

"After she mocked me enough, she waved at me and said bye, then completely vanished before my eyes without a trace, not even a shadow left!"

Probably remembering the scene, Nicola looked furious and indignant as she explained.

"How could I possibly have stopped her? My final strike was just about to hit!"

"Could she have turned invisible?"

I considered and suggested. But I soon rejected that guess. Because if she had just turned invisible, Nicola's final strike should still have hit. Getting struck by the Condensation Sword meant certain death or grave injury. It was impossible to remain untraceable.

Of course, I couldn't rule out the possibility that Aria's swordsmanship was good enough and movements agile enough to dodge even the final blow. That would make it hard to judge.

"I thought about invisibility at first, as Feliciana mentioned. But the same strange thing happened in our district too, which is thought-provoking."

Elara spoke up now, expressing her viewpoint:

"Previously, some subordinates reported that during fights with Janet's confidantes, their opponents also mysteriously disappeared at critical moments, exactly as Nicola described!"

"So Reed and I share the same opinion, that it's more likely a kind of special space teleportation magic, allowing the user to teleport to a marked location."

To avoid misunderstanding, she further explained:

"To be precise, it should be a magic item! Because Nicola didn't see Aria make any gestures or chant any incantations. Besides, angels generally can't use spatial magic. Spatial magic doesn't belong to the light element but is classified under the earth element at quite an advanced level. Usually, only human high-level earth mages can use it."

"Considering the monsters were already capable of magic devices that could massively exchange space, Reed analyzed this as likely another new gadget Michelle came up with, some kind of space teleportation item! Viewed this way, it shouldn't seem so strange..."

Nicola finally caught her breath and added:

"After all, those rebellious conservative angels are now Michelle's capable subordinates. To prevent their meaningless casualties, giving them tools like this to aid their escape would make perfect sense."

"Isn't that going overboard? If that's true, wouldn't it become very difficult to kill or capture enemies with devices like this? They could just slip away whenever something goes wrong..."

From Nicola and Elara's dialogue, I finally understood. Since it could exchange space across a city-sized area, scaling it down to the size of angels shouldn't be impossible.

Moreover, we currently knew nothing about Aria's miraculous escape. It could simply be teleportation, not even exchange.

"So following this train of thought, since even a six-winged angel like Aria has this escape ability, then the enemy's every important figure could potentially possess this power. Setting up this energy isolation barrier seems necessary!"

Nicola turned her gaze towards Yvonne in the cage. Clearly, as a rebellious conservative leader and ten-winged angel, she couldn't be excluded from this privilege.

"Reed believes that since it's accomplished through external objects, there must be some kind of communication between the teleportation device and the target location. As long as it's communication, it most likely involves energy. And the magical prison adapted from a gas collecting ball happens to be able to isolate this communication."

"What if it's quantum communication?"

Cyra inopportunely started quibbling again.

"Shut up!"

Nicola nearly wanted to strangle this nitpicker.

"Unfortunately, the facts prove this isolation is effective!"

"How do we know? Maybe the angels inside didn't die at all, but have all teleported away already, leaving only this one knocked out at the bottom for failing to escape in time..."

Cyra stubbornly hypothesized on her own. Actually, I suddenly felt her reasoning made some sense, though the possibility was probably low.