The sense of urgency now forced me to face this issue, but I still couldn't find an effective solution.
"What's the matter?"
I followed behind Elara in silence all the way, and finally couldn't help but ask.
"It's not a big deal, I'll tell you when we get to my office!"
Her voice sounded very relaxed, which allowed me to put my heart down for the moment.
I heard about Elara's office for the first time. But on second thought, it made sense that the ruler of a country would need an office.
"We're here!"
Before long we stopped in front of a set of doors. Elara opened her arms and pushed open the doors, walking in first.
Inside was a luxurious office as expected. The extravagant interior design, spacious desk, exquisite and comfortable chairs, and a sofa next to it for resting and receiving guests.
"I've heard about your and Nicola's performance at the martial arts tournament..."
After entering, she didn't beat around the bush and got straight to the point.
"So what do you mean?"
I immediately understood when I heard that, but it seemed a bit too much to call me here for such a small matter!
I thought we did quite well in the competition, but if Elara wanted to give some extra rewards, why did she only call me and not Nicola?
"Let's talk about Nicola first..."
Elara didn't answer my question directly, but stared at me and asked instead.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier that she can manipulate wind elements?"
"Well..."
I was startled and broke into a cold sweat. Crap! It turned out she didn't call me for a reward, but to interrogate me!
"Because you didn't ask!"
I answered guiltily, not knowing if I was digging my own grave, but I simply couldn't come up with a better response on the spot.
"You don't need to report it if I don't ask?"
As expected, Elara didn't buy my crap at all, her voice suddenly rose.
"Do you know how I felt when I received the report saying Nicola exhibited signs of powerful battle qi during the competition? And then when I asked Aetina and she told me it was wind element magic, how did I feel?"
"Is there a difference?"
I was confused and stared blankly for a long time before asking.
"Of course, there's a difference! The battle qi are much more powerful than elements."
Elara sighed and explained.
"Do you know why humans are generally less talented than angels, but many can still reach the 7th order and above in top combat strength?"
"Isn't it because there are more humans?"
After another long pause, I explained just in case she didn't understand.
"Because there are so many humans, it's possible for some outliers with solid talents to appear, right?"
"Uh... that's not the reason I'm talking about."
Elara suddenly realized she seemed to have been led off track and quickly pulled it back to the main topic.
"Many 7th order and above humans don't know any magic at all. They can rank among top experts relying solely on pure martial arts skills. A big contributing factor is the existence of battle qi..."
"So what exactly is this battle qi?"
Only then did I realize battle qi was much more powerful than I imagined, yet it seemed no one ever mentioned it back in the human world.
"I don't know either, I just know battle qi is completely different from normal elements, it doesn't exhibit any elemental characteristics."
Elara was in no hurry and slowly explained to me.
"It's generally believed to exist only in humans practicing martial arts with no magic affinity. But even so, those who can awaken battle qi are few. However, once awakened, they will usually grow to become top experts on the continent, as long as they don't die prematurely."
"Isn't that ridiculously overpowered?"
It was just like those martial arts novels where the MC starts with a top-tier secret manual, equivalent to a maxed-out talent of 999 and top skills. Just stay alive and you'll be invincible.
"So you understand how I felt when I learned Nicola might have battle qi? Although in theory angels can't awaken battle qi, you newborn angels often defy common sense, so there was still hope..."
She sighed deeply.
"But in the end, it was just a false alarm. Turns out Nicola was using wind element magic to cheat, which disappointed me greatly."
"Maybe she wasn't cheating..."
I thought about it and spoke up for Nicola.
"She's always been unwilling to learn magic, so she probably didn't spend time on wind magic either. I think it was mostly the result of directly manipulating wind elements."
"Directly manipulating wind elements? Aetina seems to have mentioned it too, but can angels reach that level..."
Hearing this, Elara fell into thought but didn't believe it.
"Forget it, put Nicola aside. Tell me about you!"
She gave up and switched topics decisively.
"First of all, congratulations on getting second place in the magic competition, especially with Phoebe using special methods to get first place."
"It's not that big of a deal, and it was many days ago already..."
I scratched my head, not knowing where to look, and suddenly felt a little embarrassed.
"Of course, I called you here today mainly because of this."
Elara didn't care and just kept talking.
"You should know, that no angel in Edemere can cast 'Lost Paradise Shockwave' without chanting, so after careful consideration, I decided to give you an extra reward."
An extra reward?
This was a pleasant surprise. Up until now, I thought my hopes were shattered, but the reward suddenly came back!
So what exactly is the reward? Like a weapon for the swordsmanship competition, or armour or a magic staff? It would be best if it was a storage ring...
While I was daydreaming, I saw her stand up and walk to the wall behind her.
I don't know which mechanism Elara touched, but a hidden compartment suddenly appeared on the wall. From afar, it looked like there were several angel figurines inside.
"Here, this is for you!"
After hesitating in front of the hidden compartment for a while, Elara selected one of the winged angel figurines and handed it to me.
"This is..."
I turned the figurine over and over in my hand for a long time before finally concluding - it was just an angel action figure!
Although I didn't know what material it was made of, I could see that it was a poorly crafted figure. I couldn't even make out what the face looked like! If this was sold on Earth, it would be considered a cheap knockoff product.
"What is this? A trophy?"
I couldn't help but ask. If Elara was going easy on me and giving me a trophy as encouragement, I could only accept it.
But could the quality be a little better? At least it could be worth some money if I tried to resell it.
"Do you know source magic?"
She smiled and asked me instead.
"What? This thing is related to source magic?"
Elara's words gave me a shock comparable to a bolt from the blue. Even magic needs a grimoire, right? What's the point of giving a figure?
"Take it and study it slowly. If your talent can reach the level of using source magic, you'll understand eventually."
With that said, she waved her hand to indicate I could leave.
Just then, hurried knocks suddenly came from the door. Someone was anxiously waiting outside.
"Come in!"
Elara sat back at her desk and yelled at the door.
"Elara, urgent news!"
The one who entered was an unfamiliar six-winged angel. Seeing there were others in the room, she glanced at me hurriedly, didn't even kneel, and just handed over the documents.
"What happened?"
Not only Elara but also I could see this angel had an extremely anxious look.
I suddenly had a feeling something must have happened again.
"Just now a message came from the angel legions stationed in the outside world. The decapitation target they've been waiting for with the allied forces of the Astralrealm Kingdom finally appeared after being late for many days!"
"Michelle?"
I immediately realized who she was talking about. Although Elara and the others initially determined the mysterious person (future Nicola) could only teleport Michelle within a few days, they still waited patiently for over half a month, which exceeded my expectations.
But it was good they finally succeeded in waiting for her, otherwise I wouldn't know how to explain it.
"You are?"
Hearing me speak, the messenger couldn't help but turn to look at me questioningly.
"She's Feliciana who provided the intel this time. What's the situation with the battle now?"
Without even lifting her head from the report, Elara told her to continue.
"The target matches the intel. She did appear with serious injuries. As planned, our side launched a full offensive shortly after the target suddenly materialized. The result is..."
"What's the result?"
Seeing the six-winged angel's hesitant look, I anxiously asked again. Did something happen?
To be honest, I had foreseen this kind of outcome already! We know the future twelve-winged Nicola mentioned we'll encounter Michelle again in the future, so there's no way she could be eliminated so easily.
Unfortunately, those high-ranking angels didn't listen to my advice at the welcome banquet and insisted on carrying out this decapitation operation.
"The result was the target didn't resist the fierce siege at all and died on the spot, destroyed..."
"What? No way?"
What what what what! Why isn't this following the plot?! I was dumbfounded. It didn't go as planned!