"Where's your vaunted 'Five Light Ten Color' now?!"

Cyra was hopping mad, angrily berating Reed. Oh well, so much for all that boastful talk earlier. And to think she had been bragging non-stop just a while ago.

"I already said I didn't have time to react. Don't forget my rank is the same as yours, even if I had tried to stop her, there's no guarantee I could have killed her!"

Reed shot an extremely displeased glance back at Cyra, narrowing his eyes in a very dangerous way. As she spoke, she held out her palm.

"But I did hear you mention something about a nuclear bomb... Where's my gas collection ball? Give it back!"

"Well...this..."

Cyra instantly deflated, mouth agape as she scratched her head, at a loss for how to respond.

"We were being chased by Michelle, so we had no choice but to use the hydrogen bomb..."

Seeing that she was tongue-tied, I had no choice but to help answer. But in the interests of honesty, I had to emphasize - "Cyra" did it.

"That has nothing to do with me!"

"What do you mean it has nothing to do with you!"

Cyra pointed at me and yelled loudly.

"It was you who threw out that oxygen collection sphere, even shouting 'Let's add more fuel to make this storm even fiercer!' right?!"

"Nonsense, I never said anything like that!"

Of course, I had to deny it! Though my heart knew full well that was exactly what I had thought silently - absolutely could not say it aloud!

"Cyra, you ruined in an instant the experimental results that took me half a month of hard work to obtain. While it's true that device wasn't so important to me anymore, still I spent a good few days collecting that gas successfully..."

Reed just silently bowed her head and kept moving the rubble, but her words pronounced the verdict.

"At the very least, one month...no, three months of unpaid lab assistant work, and you'll also need to cooperate with my research!"

"I don't want to! It'll kill me!"

Upon hearing this, Cyra immediately yelled a loud rejection, not even daring to move the rubble anymore as she retreated far away from Reed.

"Be good now, come back here and keep hauling bricks!"

I waved at her, gently persuading her,

"How could it possibly kill you? Don't you remember how Nicola has been spending the past few months, utterly carefree! She's even volunteered for overtime!"

"Feliciana, you wasted my oxygen collection device. While it wasn't anything too important to me anymore, still I spent a good few days collecting that gas..."

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Reed didn't seem swayed by my series of actions at all, instead uncompromisingly and mercilessly - mercilessly - declaring my sentence.

"You just work unpaid for me for one week!"

"What, how can that be?!"

The only thing I could do was wail dejectedly.

"Haha, you deserve it, you blundering fool!"

Cyra gloated on the side, but then we heard Nicola yell loudly.

"Stop chitchatting! Have you all forgotten where we are?!"

It turned out several bone dragons had slipped past the angels' aerial defences, and were almost upon Central Island.

"Hurry up and clear the rubble, once we get the 'Eye of Galadra' we retreat immediately!"

Elara had already flown up to join the other angels in intercepting the bone dragons, and seeing that Aetina was having some trouble soloing them, Nicola also summoned her Condensation Sword to join in.

"Oh, right!"

Seeing the situation, Cyra and I didn't dare dally any longer, hurriedly buckling down to work. Soon, we dug out that familiar controller.

"Looks broken, though I guess it's good that it's broken, otherwise who knows what kind of monsters it might have summoned over...?"

Seeing the screen with no display, Reed sighed, then muttered to herself.

"Never mind, let's hurry, tidy it up and take it away! Do you have a storage ring?"

I urged impatiently. I was about to offer my newly obtained storage ring, when a shocking sight accidentally caught my eye.

"What is this...wires?"

Behind the control panel of the "Eye of Galadra", the rubble had smashed an opening, revealing flickering lights inside - extremely familiar wiring, with some of the wires even severed, continuously shooting sparks.

"Haven't you figured it out yet? Despite not knowing why, it's obvious this thing is partially crafted using technological methods."

Reed had seen it too, of course. But after studying this thing for so long, she didn't seem surprised at all.

Without another word, she casually took out a "button", placed it on the ground, and crushed it under her foot...

"This is...a chip? An integrated circuit?!"

I picked up the shattered "escape teleportation device", eyes wide. While the exposed chip had a far higher degree of integration compared to normal chips I'd seen before, and lacked any logo or markings, finding something like this here was already highly irregular.

"No way...what is going on? Didn't we cross over to a magical fantasy world?"

Cyra had also come over to take a look, an expression of disbelief on her face.

"Now's not the time to discuss this, let's get back first!"

Seeing the aerial battle, Reed urged us to hurry, bending down to gather the parts on the ground and beckoning us over to help.

"This is..."

Indeed, there was no time left to agonize or delay. After hesitating a moment, I finally grit my teeth and went over, stuffing the entire "Eye of Galadra" console into the storage ring in one go.

"Alright! Notify Elara and the others to retreat!"

After quickly surveying the surroundings for anything else, Reed rushed out first from the ruins of the lookout tower, flying straight up into the sky.

"All done over there?"

Nicola struck both sides, a Condensation Sword in each hand as she sliced apart a bone dragon's skull. Glancing back at us, she asked.

"All done! Retreat!"

Giving an OK sign with my hand, I flew up towards the sky with Cyra, heading in the direction we had come from based on memory. But I didn't know what to do next, unable to spot where Edenmere's entrance was!

Hovering in midair, I could only keep looking left and right, hoping to get lucky and find the entrance by chance. But there were so many angels in the aerial battlefield right now, light elements everywhere, not to mention the endless magic bombardments - it was hard to pinpoint its location based on the light aura alone.

"Retreat!"

But no worries, if I didn't know, some other angel was bound to.

I didn't have to worry for long either. Since Nicola had already spread the retreat order, Elara received this news through the spiritual network. She promptly notified all the angels to begin withdrawal.

"You go first, we'll cover the rear here!"

Seeing Nicola still tangled with some bone dragons, Elara and Shirley flew over to her side, urging her to leave quickly. But their gaze remained fixed on the Condensation Sword, unable to look away.

"This weapon is..."

"What are you still dawdling around here for? Reed's already returned, didn't you hear Elara's order to retreat?!"

Passing by me, Aetina grabbed my clothes and forcibly dragged me into Edenmere's entrance.

In the final moment before entering, I glimpsed from afar Elara excitedly receiving the Condensation Sword from Nicola...