This was a pure white, elongated shuttle-shaped spacecraft, like a seed. Its streamlined exterior and smooth reflective coating looked extremely high-tech.
I had never seen a spacecraft of this design before. It clearly did not belong to the Ilandra Dominion Empire, Crestvale Republic, Astralrealm Kingdom or any other country. If it had to be categorized, it could only match the style of the sky city Lantine Oasis.
The frustrating part was that this spacecraft was now wedged at the very top of the Chromos Tower in a rather amusing posture. Although only the pointed front section had penetrated into the tower body, thick black smoke could still be seen billowing out from the impact hole, indicating severe internal damage.
Groups of guards at the tower's base were rushing up to the damaged level, but given the tower's enormous height, it would take them some time to get there.
Amidst the chaos, the shouts from inside the tower grew even louder, as if panic had struck again. I sensed an inexplicable danger and whipped my head around - good grief! Another aircraft had appeared near the Chromos Tower!
This time it was a very ordinary church aircraft. However, instead of slowing down, it actually sped up and headed straight for a kamikaze crash into the tower body.
"Oh no!"
The situation scared me into lowering my altitude. Although the aircraft's underside was still more than ten meters away from me, the air currents it created almost blew me off my feet and onto the ground.
Bang!
Just like before in the room, the Chromos Tower shook violently from the church aircraft's impact. However, being an product of an ancient civilization, it managed to remain standing firmly! Apart from some exterior damage, there were no signs of collapse. The only difference from before was that it now had two extra "plugins" at the top, forming an irregular Y-shape from afar...
Seizing this rare opportunity, many aircraft hovering in the sky braved the artillery fire to make desperate landings in the city. Soon, soldiers from the church and kingdom forces poured out, all with one unified target - the Chromos Tower, the central structure of this city.
"Attention! Highest level alert, enemy invasion of central control tower! All civilians in the city must immediately head to the nearest shelter. Evacuation equipment is fully activated and ready for use..."
Probably realizing the situation was dire, Adrian activated a city-wide alert, with this clearly synthetic voice echoing across the entire Lantine Oasis. At the same time, chaos erupted inside the Chromos Tower.
"Quick, fall back, reinforcements needed outside the tower!"
"Don't crowd, don't crowd! Everyone evacuate in an orderly fashion!"
"Someone tripped down there, the stairs are blocked, what do we do?"
...
This was bad. The guards who had been climbing up the tower now had to turn back and rush downstairs to engage the enemy.
It seemed the Astralrealm Kingdom allied forces had launched their final assault. I didn't know who was piloting that strange white spacecraft, but if it hadn't crashed into the top of the Chromos Tower first, the allies likely wouldn't have gotten this golden opportunity to counterattack.
"Charge on, for the Alliance!"
"Long live Parristol!"
Soon, soldiers from both sides were engaging in heated battle at the plaza in front of the tower. I looked down at the ground below, then up at the two smoking aircraft above, and decided it was better to go to the top, since Adrian was probably there too. Even if he was currently the enemy leader, I still didn't want anything to happen to him.
The throne room at the top of the tower was the highest point in this city, and also where the king controlled the entire city from. It was very difficult for ordinary people to reach there, unless they could fly...
So what was the origin of that strangely shaped white spacecraft? As I got closer, I could see the details of its body more clearly.
This spacecraft had no windows at all. Its entire body was a flattened melon seed shape, with almost no visible gaps or openings on the surface. However, there was a very simple pattern depicted on the upper side.
It was three pairs of white wings, symmetrically distributed in the upper, middle and lower positions. However, the entire pattern only consisted of these three pairs of wings. Apart from a rectangular entrance hatch in the middle, there was no depiction of an angel's actual form, so I could not be completely certain that this pattern represented an angel.
Since the entrance hatch was already open, it meant the pilot had come out. Although I wanted to peek inside out of curiosity, the sounds of fighting coming from the throne room above promptly stopped me. I hurried up to investigate.
To my surprise, the ones fiercely battling at the top of the Chromos Tower were Cyra and Arick! Well, Arick was no surprise, but how did Cyra end up here? And why did she suddenly have the ability to fight Arick on equal footing? Could it be...I suddenly realized, this must be Cysper and Cyra switching bodies!
Sure enough, when Cysper saw me, he immediately retreated a few meters, turned sideways and nodded slightly at me, before charging back into battle with his opponent.
I had to admit, the demon Arick was indeed extremely powerful! Although he was beaten black and blue by Cysper in their last encounter, he had learned his lesson and came fully prepared this time, focusing his defenses against Cysper's Radiant Dawn Strike. Not only did he successfully resist the invading light elements with his own dark elements, he could even occasionally launch effective counterattacks while defending, making the outcome seem far less certain.
"This place really cramps my fighting style, why don't we move to a more open area?" Getting heated up from the fighting, Arick tore off his clothes, exposing his ink-black torso covered in intricate patterns, and suggested to Cysper.
In my opinion, the throne room was already pretty spacious, but he still found it too small...
"No problem, anywhere is fine!" To my surprise, Cysper was completely unfazed, letting out a soft laugh before flying out of the tower first, turning back to gesture at Arick.
"Since we can both fly, why don't we settle this in the sky?"
"Gladly!"
Watching the two of them quickly ascend higher into the skies above to begin their next round of battle, I suddenly realized a big problem.
If Cysper was here, then where was Cyra?
I scanned the entire throne room. Apart from Adrian sitting on the central throne with his back to me, and Mirium standing protectively in front of him, the only others facing them were a group of humans.
"Alfreed!"
Indeed! I really didn't expect it to be them! Besides Alfreed, Brennan and Eleanora had also come, all former teammates and friends of Adrian's. They probably assaulted from the aircraft that later crashed into the tower body. Of course, there were also some other kingdom soldiers and church members accompanying them, but by now only a handful remained standing.
However, I still did not see Cyra anywhere...
"Have you seen Cyra, or Mike?" Seeing this situation, I hurriedly flew over to their location. To be honest, the current circumstances made me feel rather awkward. What if Adrian insisted in front of them that I was the "Queen"? Wouldn't that make me look like a traitor?
"Didn't Cyra just fly out with that demon a while ago? You didn't see?" Thankfully, Alfreed and the others didn't seem to have any peculiar reaction upon seeing me, only answering with some bewilderment.
Uh...well, they had no idea the Pope had swapped bodies with Cyra after all, so should I ask about the Pope's whereabouts instead?
But I didn't get the chance, as Adrian immediately stood up and called out to me upon seeing me here.
"Feliciana, why did you come here? Quick, come to my side!"
Huh? Wasn't that just inviting social death on the spot? No way!
Feeling rather awkward, I turned my head away pretending not to hear him. Seeing my reaction, Adrian was dumbfounded, his arm extended mid-gesture hanging in the air as he had no idea what to do, before eventually sitting back down slowly in front of the throne.
To be honest, my stance differed from Alfreed and the others, I didn't particularly object to Adrian's desire to restore the kingdom, even feeling a tinge of admiration. But he was openly cooperating with monsters without any regard for my identity issue. What's more, almost all his other friends opposed him, so I could only continue standing on the opposite side for now.
Honestly, I didn't want things to develop this way either! But who asked Adrian to insist on restoring the kingdom? This was probably the best solution, right? Furthermore, by joining Alfreed's group I could still try to ensure both sides' safety, I just didn't know if Adrian could see that point. I dreaded the thought of him being blinded by his ambition to restore the kingdom. What if we ended up fighting each other - that would really be a dilemma...
"Adrian, you see, we all care about you, including Feliciana..."
Glancing at me unexpectedly, Alfreed seemed to realize something and called out to Adrian from behind Mirium.
"So why are you still siding with monsters? Quickly come to your senses, we'll all try to plead for leniency for you after this!"
"Yeah, have you forgotten the friendship between us? If Vivianne knew, she would definitely be very sad, although...uh...I...ah!"
Brennan immediately chimed in with persuasions, but as soon as he mentioned Vivianne, he lost his conviction and could only stammer to a close.