"Who said we're going to split up in the future?"

Nicola raised her eyebrows in disagreement.

"Didn't you see the blue-winged angel floating in the sky back then? How many blue-winged angels could there be in this world? It had to be you!"

"We can't be sure of that! It could very well not have been me!"

I flung her hand aside and flew back. I still had no idea why my wings had turned blue. Thinking about it too much would only add to my distress. I hadn't wanted to bring it up in the first place, yet she had dredged it up again.

"How could it not be you? Coming back from the future with my future self - who else could it be?"

Nicola tailed me closely, speaking with complete certainty.

"Who knows? People change after all..."

I was reminded again of the items from my storage ring and the possibility of Nicola getting married in the future. I suddenly felt that the human heart was so complicated...

After returning to my room, I would've activated the light elemental isolator and gone to rest on any other day. But today I decided not to sleep at all and to stay up reading all night instead. Angels didn't need sleep anyway, and there was no day or night cycle here besides.

Of course, there was another, more important reason - after yesterday's nightmare, I had developed a phobia of dreaming. That nightmare had simply been too realistic! I kept feeling like it wasn't just a random dream but was connected to the traces of dark elemental energy I'd discovered somehow.

Unfortunately, Nicola didn't believe my words at all. And I had no evidence to show anyone else to plead my case either. My only option was to not sleep for now and see if I could find any clues. If a demon had snuck into my room, it was very likely not ready to give up just yet and could take action again. Maybe I could catch it red-handed next time.

"Feliciana, why are you sitting out here in the hallway?"

Around midnight, Norma happened to walk past my room slowly. Seeing me sitting on a chair I'd dragged out into the hallway and reading by the window light, she asked in surprise.

"Oh it's nothing, I just felt the lighting's better out here in the hallway..."

I closed my magic book awkwardly, not having expected to run into Norma at this hour. Looks like she was also a night owl.

"But don't you have windows in your room... Wait, do you have the light elemental isolator on?"

Since my room door wasn't closed, she could easily see the boundary of the light elemental isolator inside, glinting like a mirror.

"And it's at max power?"

Norma shot me a bewildered look, unclear why I would do that.

Activating the light elemental isolator created a barrier within a bounded space to reflect external light elemental energy, including the normal light we could see. If the effect was maxed out, it would be pitch black inside the bounded zone, while looking in from outside was like peering into a mirror since all light shining in was reflected out. Of course, I could also adjust the intensity so the mirror effect wouldn't be as pronounced and some light still filtered through if I wanted.

"Well, you see..."

I was at a sudden loss over how to explain this properly. Should I just tell her flat out that I'd deliberately set the isolator to try and lure whatever had caused my strange dreams, hoping to catch it in the act?

But I couldn't just wait indefinitely inside either! As time passed with no replenishment of external light elemental energy, I'd get sleepy before long. And it would be so boring with no light to read by too!

"Do you think... demons could exist in Edenmere?"

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I decided to first probe her opinion circumspectingly.

"Impossible!"

As I'd expected, Norma almost blew her top instantly, immediately refuting,

"Only angels and light elves permitted by Lady Elara can enter Edenmere. Entry and exit are extremely strictly controlled, how could demons possibly get in? Besides, extremely rich light elements are everywhere here, completely unsuitable for demons to survive. We angel and light elves would never allow demons to exist anywhere in the Edenmere either. You telling me demons exist here now is preposterous..."

"Alright alright!"

I quickly cut off her long tirade. I'd anticipated she might react strongly but this was even more excessive than I imagined.

"I was just casually asking..."

"Why ask about something like this!"

Norma shot me an uncomprehending look, then stuck her head past the isolator boundary to peer inside.

"Could it be someone's sleeping inside?"

With it dark inside, she couldn't see anything much so could only guess.

"It's Reed! Reed wanted to rest today so she's temporarily staying over in my room!"

A flash of inspiration hit me and I blurted the first excuse I could think of. I suddenly remembered Reed didn't have quarters arranged for her in the Tivi Palace since she always lingered in the archives, so I could conveniently use her as my smokescreen now.

"So don't disturb her at all, she hasn't slept in a long time already..."

I advised earnestly, even intentionally lowering my voice some.

"Really?"

That bookworm Reed suddenly running back to sleep? Norma was naturally somewhat skeptical but also couldn't think of reasons to doubt me for now. She could only leave first to handle her matters.

But just then, an accident occurred...

"Who goes there!"

Only to hear a tremendous crash from the next room over, followed by Nicola yelling at the top of her lungs.

"What's going on here?"

Norma and I gaped at each other, stunned, taking quite a while to recover our wits before hurrying to pound urgently on Nicola's door.

"Nicola..."

I'd only knocked two or three times when the door abruptly opened from inside. Nicola, dressed in pyjamas with her Condensation Sword in hand, stood behind it.

"Tsk tsk—"

One look at the scene within made me suck in a breath - it could only be described as utterly disastrous. Not only was the bed hacked into pieces but the table hadn't been spared either. The light elemental isolator lay cracked on the ground, seemingly rendered non-functional. Even the wall was left with several deep gouges from a sword.

"Just what happened here! Were you sleepwalking?"

All this destruction was wrought by Nicola alone with her Condensation Sword, while Norma stood there utterly flabbergasted, gaping wordlessly at the wrecked room.

"There was..."

Nicola exchanged a look with me, seeming to want to say something but hesitating over it.

"There was what?"

I had no clue why she'd gone postal like this and pressed anxiously for answers, but I sensed something off immediately. A now familiar smell lingered faintly in the room.

Dark elemental energy again!

"Could it be... you too?"

I thought I grasped her implication now - Nicola had likely suffered the same experience I had yesterday.

Moreover, the concentration of dark elemental energy seemed much higher than what I'd felt before, though it probably still couldn't withstand the endless encroachment of external light elemental energy for long and would vanish without a trace soon.

"What is this disgusting smell?"

As a four-winged angel, Norma was naturally also highly sensitive to dark elemental energy. She seemed to detect the anomaly too, wrinkling her nose to ask,

"This is dark elemental energy! Don't you know?"

I found it a bit odd. Could she have never sensed dark elemental energy before?

"Dark elemental energy? You mean from demons themselves?"

She gave a full-body shudder at my words, peering warily around even though no more traces of demons could remain.

"It's not necessarily unique to demons only..."

I'd intended to explain more about the relationship between dark elemental energy and demons, but now was not the time.

"Oh forget it, it means about the same thing!"

"Really? Since I've never left Edenmere before, don't try tricking me!"

As I expected, Norma belonged to those angels who'd yet to experience the wider world at all. Seeing Nicola's and my lack of fear, she remained dubious over my claims.

"And how could demons exist in Edenmere?"

"If you don't believe me, hurry and get another angel who can identify dark elements to verify!"

I was getting antsy now. The lingering dark elemental energy would dissipate any second. Yet I just had to bump into such an ignorant angel. Wouldn't the evidence then get invalidated completely?

"Quickly..."

"Forget it, it's faded almost completely anyway. Too late now!"

Nicola blocked my urging and shook her head. Then she looked at me apologetically and said,

"I'm sorry. You tried to warn me earlier but I didn't believe you..."

It seemed that she only took my words seriously after suffering the incident herself.

"It's alright, let's try to find some evidence first."

I rolled my eyes, not wanting to nitpick over this. Although I didn't know how the demons had entered Edenmere, the most urgent matter now was to make the Angels alert to the demon invasion.

But looking at the scene here, Nicola seemed to have engaged in intense combat with the demon, yet there were no demon corpses left behind.

"Did you let it get away?"

I asked doubtfully. Her situation seemed better than mine - by the time I woke up yesterday, there wasn't a single shadow left to be seen already. Who knew if we faced the same one? If more than one demon had infiltrated, the circumstances could be considered quite severe.

"I couldn't help it...I couldn't hit it. But I saw what that demon looked like."

Nicola walked to the window, gazing thoughtfully outside at the cityscape.

"It was like a ball of black smoke, without tangible form. Really bizarre, completely different from demons we normally see."