"Nonsense! You think you can make it up to me?" Nicola didn't want to accept Adonis's try at making peace. She looked at me and Cyra healing Adrian, her face getting darker. She looked unhappy. But with Adonis blocking her way, she didn't dare make a move.
"So you still want to fight? I may be old, but I can handle seeing what the Angel 'Inheritor' can do!"
Adonis laughed coldly. He knew Nicola wouldn't attack easily.
If Nicola really wanted to fight, she would've rushed in when Meredith was chanting earlier. She didn't, so that showed something.
In games or real battles, you should never let the other side's mages finish their spell. Especially not Meredith's long, powerful spells.
This showed Nicola had grown smarter after her time in the Barren Lands. She was more hot-headed in some ways, but not as dumb as before when she'd just charge in with her sword.
Sadly, this change wasn't good for our friendships. It felt like something invisible was pulling us apart.
"Fine, he's lucky this time! But he can't hide forever," Nicola finally gave up. She put away her sword and flew off without another word.
"Wait! Aren't you staying..." I started to call out to stop her, but then I saw Adrian's arm still healing. I realized that wasn't a good idea, so I changed and asked, "Where are you going?"
"Hmph! None of your business!" Nicola didn't even look back. She was probably still mad at me. She paused in the air for a moment and said, "If you really like him, say goodbye while you can!" Then she flew off.
"...Huh?" I was confused again. I didn't get why Nicola was so hung up on this impossible romance with me. She seemed smart when facing Adonis, so why did she lose her cool about Adrian?
Plus, she knew who I used to be! It didn't make sense from any angle.
"I'm sorry, I didn't think things would turn out like this..." Cyra apologized. She hadn't been much help and was scared by Nicola's anger. She'd been using light magic to help me heal Adrian. Now that his arm was "growing back", she finally had time to say sorry.
"It's okay, I know you tried your best." Maybe I was a bit mad at her for making Nicola angry before. But thinking about it, this probably would've happened anyway. We couldn't have avoided it.
Even before Adrian showed up, Nicola was already mad about Elara using Aria to trick her into working for free. Adrian just happened to be in the wrong place. Finding out about my relationship with him just made things worse. With Nicola's temper, of course she'd go crazy!
It was pretty good that she could still see she was at a disadvantage against Adonis and decide to leave, even when she was almost out of control. At least Cyra was right at first - Adrian and I being together would've come out sooner or later. If we kept hiding it, who knows what worse thing might've happened later.
"Phew - good thing we scared her off. If we really fought, I'm not sure who would've won..." Adonis wiped his brow and told Judith the truth once Nicola was gone.
"I think she might not be an 'Inheritor' at all. She could even be the Wind Angel Liana reborn!"
Wow! How could he guess that? But from this, we could see the Sage Council knew a lot about angel origins and the two Founders. They knew as much as Elara, the angel leader, about many details.
"Thank you for helping. If not for you, I might be dead now!" After a while, with high-level healing magic, Adrian was fully recovered. He squeezed my hand, saying everything without words. Then he stood up and thanked Adonis.
"No worry!" Adonis checked Adrian's condition, then sighed and said seriously, "I could only help you for now. If you leave Crescent City later, you'll need to be careful to avoid her!"
"But how did you end up fighting with her? I remember you all got along before," Meredith asked, confused. It was true - the first time we met her, Nicola, Adrian and I were all there. We got along well then. Thinking about it made me miss those times.
"Well..." Adrian and I blushed when our relationship was mentioned. We didn't know what to say. Seeing this, Meredith probably guessed most of it. She just shook her head and turned away like she never asked.
Nicola wasn't the only problem. The mess she left behind was a real headache. Around the Adventurers' Guild, with the inn at the center, almost all wooden buildings within 50 meters were gone. Even stone houses that survived the wind had cracked walls and weren't safe to live in anymore.
Nicola's "Gray Wing" form had a huge impact. I was most worried they'd ask us to pay for the damage. How could we ever afford that?
"What? You're going to start rebuilding now? But there are still people trapped under the rubble!" Cyra suddenly called out in disbelief. I hadn't heard what Meredith said behind us earlier.
"Hehe! Don't worry, just stand back and watch! My son will handle everything. Otherwise, the magic boost we gave him would be wasted!" Judith said proudly. She seemed to know what was coming. She pulled us to the edge of the ruins so we wouldn't get in the way.
Then something amazing happened - Adonis reached out his hand towards the empty ruins. Suddenly, all the broken pieces of houses big and small floated up in the air. They started "sticking" back together in reverse order, like a video playing backwards. Soon, all the buildings in the disaster area were standing again like nothing had happened. The people who were trapped underneath were now out in the open. Medical magic teams waiting nearby rushed in to help them.
"Strange, is this time reversal? But if it is, why aren't the injured people healed by going back in time too?" Adrian noticed something odd, but couldn't figure it out.
"Because reversing all of time would have too big an effect on reality!" Meredith smiled and explained. "For example, your friend already left this place. If we reversed everything, she and you would have to go back too. That would cause too many problems. So the Council Leader chose to only reverse time for non-living things like buildings in a small area. This avoids those problems, uses less energy, and lets him reverse time for longer."
I see. They say Adonis's talent can reverse time for the whole world by about a minute at most, probably with magic boosts. Our fight and standoff with Nicola lasted way longer than that. Adonis's targeted small-scale time control was much more efficient than just reversing everything.
He really deserves to be called the top human! To me, this was almost like a miracle. Even Elara, the strongest angel, might not be able to do this. And he was just a human...