"Raydwin is with her 'Lord' now?"
I was shocked when I heard this. Before today, I would've been 100% sure I'd react like Luke Channing and not give a damn about Cyra's crazy talk.
But after seeing Cyra magically say the nuke codes, and that white light coming out of the sea, I started thinking. When I put it all together, I got this wild idea I never had before!
Then I quickly asked:
"The nukes heading to Shine Metropolitan already launched. Did Number 14 Feliciana say anything special or suggest how to stop them?"
"14 world's Feliciana?" Luke Channing sounded surprised I brought her up. He replied, "Nope! She finished all her planned tasks. We haven't heard anything from her since!"
I thought Number 14 Feliciana planned this whole mission. If we follow her plan, I reckon she already set up an ending that's not too bad.
But I can't accept H-country's Shine Metropolitan getting nuked. I don't believe No. 14 Feliciana would let her hometown get totally destroyed by nukes! But since she didn't react, maybe the nuke won't actually blow up in H-country's Shine Metropolitan? Maybe there's still hope to fix this?
"Look, there's something flying in the sky over there! Doesn't look like an Earth plane..." Adrian suddenly spotted something. His eyesight was as good as binoculars! He pointed to a trail way up in the sky southwest of us and asked, "That's not the missile going to H-country, is it?"
Looking at the map, M-country's capital was right between Histon Base and H-country's Shine Metropolitan. Luke Channing told us the nuke was still climbing and speeding up. It would go into space after passing over us, then come back down.
I suddenly realized - this might be our only chance to stop that nuke!
"What, you want to stop that nuke?!"
Adrian strongly disagreed when he heard my idea. "That's crazy! You're almost out of magic power, right? And unlike around the president's house, it's hard to get light elements other places on Earth. Trying to stop a nuke explosion with just your body is suicide!"
"He's right! Our intel says this missile will blow up automatically if the shell gets damaged at all, even if it doesn't hit the target. You can stop the attack that way, but are you sure you want to risk your life?" Luke Channing also tried to talk me out of it on the radio, but he wasn't as forceful as Adrian.
After all, he didn't want his country to get nuked either. If a mysterious angel from another world could stop it, that would be great.
"It's not as bad as you think. I still have a tiny bit of magic left, and angels are super resistant to energy attacks. Don't forget I have eight wings now! My defense is way stronger than before. I've taken nuke blasts before, so I'm used to it. No need to worry!"
The problem was Adrian just wouldn't listen. Even though I tried to make my situation sound good, he still didn't believe me.
But time was running out. It wasn't easy to explain all my reasons for this decision! For the first time, I realized Adrian could be as stubborn as a kid when he wants to be. He was stuck to me like glue in the air and wouldn't let go! I had no choice but to kick him down and fly towards the target by myself.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
With Adrian's strength now, falling from a few hundred meters is about as bad as a slap on the butt. But the nuke was over 10,000 meters up, and it wasn't easy to get in front of it in time.
Angels fly fast, but not as fast as missiles. If I missed it, I'd never catch up.
The biggest problem was that the air gets thinner higher up. Angels need some oxygen too. As I started running out of air, my brain got a bit slow.
The cold didn't bother me much. Then I heard some static on the radio - probably a message from Luke Channing.
"You're almost out of my signal range... You have to catch the missile before it leaves the atmosphere... You have a gun, right? It'll be really hard to hit and damage the shell of a fast-moving target... you can do it?"
"Of course... I can!" I wiped the ice off my face and answered quickly. Actually, I didn't have a gun! It all happened so fast, I didn't have time to go get one. The only way to damage it was to crash into it head-on.
"I'm sorry! Maybe I was too emotional earlier... This time I decided to trust your judgment! You're not the same clueless four-winged angel anymore. You've really grown up. Now I just want to say, I'm proud of you! And make sure you come back alive!"
Then Adrian left a message. I was pretty touched. But because of the pressure around me, the radio couldn't work anymore. I just kept flying towards the target in silence.
I didn't have enough magic power left to survive a close-range nuke blast. Using high-level magic to look at Camille's memories used up all my magic. I got a little bit back, but like Adrian said, Earth's environment can't give me enough magic to handle a multi-megaton nuke blast! There was more light elements up high like Cyra said, but with so little time it was just a drop in the bucket.
It would be really hard to completely block a strategic nuke's power, but that doesn't mean I suddenly went crazy and wanted to die for nothing.
First of all, if I was definitely going to die, Number 14 Feliciana should show up to help me now, right?
And the main point: Destroying the nuke attacking H-country was definitely my main goal. But all the weird stuff with Cyra during the mission showed one thing - it's not that simple! There might be some unknown being somewhere, in some realm, watching everything we do!
Cyra mentioned the god she worships more than once. Number 14 Feliciana talked about a god too... And the Pope, who suddenly sacrificed himself to save Cyra for no reason. Thinking back, when the Pope had his "revelation" at the end, it looked just like the Divine Revelation Cyra talked about!
Actually, I really suspect that white light that came out of the sea carries Raydwin's soul. That's probably why Cyra insists he's not really dead.
Light elements can connect with souls. All the weird stuff is connected to light elements, so all the clues point to light elements itself! If some being can only communicate through light elements, either actively or passively, maybe I can meet the conditions too?
No. 14 Feliciana hinted many times that I definitely didn't die in the correct history. If something is quietly watching us, how would these "outside forces" Cyra mentioned handle it if I was really going to die in this messed-up history No. 14 Feliciana is trying so hard to fix? Would they step in to save me?
This was my final confidence in deciding to intercept the nuke. It was also the boldest plan of my life! Betting everything on Cyra's "Lord", and figuring out what this "God" hiding behind the scenes really is.
The moment finally came!
The chase went pretty smoothly. I finally got in front of the nuke's path when I still had a bit of consciousness left from lack of oxygen.
Too bad the little bit of magic power I got back still wasn't enough for high-level defense magic. I decided to do the same thing as last time - spread light elements all over my body and use all my strength to throw myself at the incoming missile.
...
I don't know how long it was, but when I slowly felt myself regain consciousness, I realized I was sitting in a chair.
The surroundings looked kind of like a company meeting room. There was a huge long conference table in front of me with lots of chairs. This scene felt a little familiar... Maybe it was where I had an interview before I got transported to another world?
"Sorry I'm late! Hope you weren't waiting long!"
Just then, the door behind me opened. A guy in a business suit hurried into the room.
I suddenly remembered that during my interview back then, something similar happened - the interviewer had a sudden stomach problem and had to use the bathroom. So he left me in this meeting room for several minutes. This was just like when he came back.