This was the southeast part of the Ilandra Dominion. Galadra had teleported us to a spot right in the middle of a forest.
It was very hot here. Because of the wet climate, the trees in the south grew thicker than in the north.
When I first came to this world, I arrived at the Elara Woodlands. That place had mostly pine trees and tall trees. But here, we saw mostly small bushes. There was green moss and vines everywhere, wrapped around tree trunks and rocks. It was a completely different ecosystem.
With so many plants, there must be many animals too! We could hear different animal calls from nearby. If you paid attention, you could see all kinds of small animals running around. The jungle was very lively! There were even some magical creatures.
"No way, are there so many magical beasts in the south?" Cyra was very surprised when she saw this. We had never seen anything like this before. You know, we are angels! Even though we had put away our wings, the light energy we gave off should scare normal magical beasts.
But the magical beasts in this forest didn't avoid us. They didn't dare come right up to us, but they came quite close.
Magical beasts with no or very low intelligence are usually called "monster beasts". Compared to smart and powerful magical creatures, monster beasts act more on instinct. To humans, they're basically just wild animals changed by dark energy.
Because light and dark are naturally opposite in this world, monster beasts are usually very afraid of light mages. When they sense light energy, they usually stay far away. And they're even more scared of angels!
But strangely, several small monster beasts that looked like wild cats ran past us just two or three meters away. They didn't even look at us. They didn't show any anger either. It was like we didn't exist at all.
"These magical creatures escaped from the north to here a long time ago," Galadra explained casually. "They've lived here for many generations. Their habits are very different now."
"I see! No wonder the dark energy from these monster beasts feels so weak!" I suddenly understood. It was still stronger than normal animals, but much weaker than the ones invading humans in the north.
Magical creatures breed very fast. But in the south, they might not find enough of their own kind. So they often have to breed with normal wild animals. Sometimes they even have to breed with different species. So it's normal that their dark energy became weaker.
I should explain something here. Of course there are barriers between species, even in this magic world. But dark energy creatures are very special (angels have wings which is different, but our bodies are mostly the same as humans).
Usually, the more dark energy a magical creature has (you could say the more "changed" high-level magical creatures are), the more likely they can have babies with completely different species. But high-level magical creatures are usually very smart. They prefer to breed with their own kind. Also, many mixed babies have problems and can't survive or fight well. So we don't see too many mixed magical creatures.
"This dark energy is quite strange!" Cyra said thoughtfully after hearing my explanation. "It can turn people into zombies and break barriers between species. It feels familiar somehow..."
"Now is not the time to discuss this," Galadra interrupted, looking at her meaningfully. "Don't forget why I brought you here!" After all, we didn't come here to study nature. We came to help her get through a difficult time.
"When exactly will the Cycle of Rebirth projection come? Should we wait here? But..." Adrian frowned, worried about wasting time just waiting around.
I had wanted to leave him and Cyra in Crescent City and come alone. But they strongly disagreed. Luckily Galadra didn't mind, so we all came together.
Thinking about it again, this wasn't bad! At least Nicola probably couldn't find Adrian so far away. Even after several days, it would still be risky for them to meet outside Crescent City! Knowing how stubborn and proud Nicola is, it's best to wait longer. Maybe after the anger passes, both sides will be easier to talk to!
"Why don't we go investigate over there?" Cyra had flown up into the air. She pointed in the distance, suggesting to us.
"Is that the empire's military base the republic's messenger talked about?"
When Adrian and I flew up, we first saw a huge shiny shield. It looked very out of place suddenly appearing in the endless forest.
This wasn't the first time we learned about it. What we saw looked almost exactly the same as what Galadra showed us on her virtual screen before. The only difference was that there seemed to be a new cleared area around the edge of the shield. There was a wire fence on the cleared ground, clearly to keep things out.
"If you really want to investigate, that's okay," Galadra said casually. She was floating beside us without needing to fly since she wasn't solid now. "But don't go in too deep. Nobody knows what's in there. It's best to save your strength."
"To save energy, I'll go back now. The Cycle of Rebirth projection will come to this forest at midnight tomorrow. Don't forget when you're busy rescuing your friends!" Maybe she was in a hurry to get back to her TV dramas. She made up this excuse and disappeared.
The Ilandra Dominion doesn't have any really famous talents like Adonis. Maybe because the enemy is normal humans, she wasn't very worried about our safety.
This military base was built completely in the jungle, near the empire's eastern border. It was only a few kilometers from where we were standing.
In just a few minutes, we flew to the fence at the edge of the shield. There were no guards patrolling around. Clearly the fence was mainly to stop animals from wandering in by accident.
"Hey, this thing is just a light element isolator!" Cyra said as she looked closely at the shield. The surface looked even smoother up close, almost like a mirror reflecting light perfectly. Cyra stood in front of the "mirror", posing and looking at her slightly twisted reflection.
"It's not exactly the same," I disagreed. "Light element isolators only block light elements. But this shield blocks all types of elements!"
I could see they were similar. Maybe they were related. But that doesn't mean they're the same thing.
I had never seen such a big light element isolator before. It probably covered several million square meters! Bigger than a football field! To keep such a huge shield working for a long time, you would need a magic circle of the same size to support it.
"Should we just go in then?" Adrian suggested. The fence was useless to us of course. "If we just investigate around the edge without going deep, can we feel Reed and the others' energy?"
"But the area inside is so big," I hesitated a bit, but finally chose to take the risk. "If they don't open their wings, I think it will be hard to find them. We can only try our luck..."
Whatever! Since we came all this way, and the information says Reed and Mia are probably inside, how could we be satisfied without sneaking in to investigate?
Of course the shield wasn't solid. But when we easily crossed the fence and went inside, we were shocked.
"Huh? There's another layer?" Cyra's mouth fell open as she looked up at the second "shield" in front of her. She could hardly believe her eyes.
To be exact, this layer wasn't really a shield. It was a building! But it had the same dome shape as the shield, like a huge yurt covering everything important inside. The outer wall was only one or two meters from the edge of the shield. When we first went in, we almost bumped into it.
This was bad. With a solid building blocking the way, we not only couldn't see what was inside from the outside, but it also became very hard to get in!
We couldn't see any entrance on this side. Unlike outside the shield, we could faintly hear the footsteps of empire soldiers patrolling and training in the distance.
Even though it should be very dark inside the shield since it blocked outside light, there was a ring of very bright magic lights around the top of the building. There were several hundred of them! They lit up the whole military base area.
"Maybe we should retreat for now and make a better plan?" Adrian suggested carefully. He couldn't guess it would be like this inside.
"Agree!"
"Agreed!"
Cyra and I said at the same time. The patrolling footsteps in the distance seemed to be getting closer. If we didn't want to be discovered for nothing, retreating was definitely the smartest choice.