"Wow, is that magic power? Earth tech can't do that for sure!"
It was Nicora's first time in the main world, so she couldn't help being curious about everything.
"Shh, keep your voice down! Don't forget we're special," Feliciara scolded her. "Angels could be watching us anytime. Better shut up!"
"I'm really sorry for dragging you all into this war, especially in the most dangerous frontline unit," Cyrae apologized again, feeling bad. "Michelle was only after me at first. It's my fault for offending her..."
Just as Cyrae guessed earlier, Michelle didn't go to the library to kill. She just wanted to satisfy her own desires.
The reason was simple - Cyrae and her friends were angels who had been reborn from humans and still had their old memories. So in this attack on the Ilandra Dominion Empire, Michelle picked all the reincarnated people to join the army.
Of course, this wasn't about patriotism. Michelle wasn't that nice! She just wanted to see humans killing each other...
While humans fighting each other wasn't rare on the continent, it was a special treat for Michelle. Usually humans stuck together when facing monsters. So this unusual civil war Michelle cooked up was extra exciting for her.
The angel clan led by Yvonne actually supported this decision too. The conservative higher-ups wanted to figure out where these reborn angels' loyalties lay. Making Cyrae and her friends fight against humans was killing two birds with one stone.
"No worries! We're only fighting humans anyway. Angels aren't affected by magic, and humans are way weaker than us in every way. Let's just treat this as a chance to get out of boring old Edenmere and see the world!" Nicora waved her hand carelessly. She always thought highly of herself. When Michelle announced her decision to draft them, Nicora didn't even object. She just shrugged and agreed right away, surprising everyone.
"But that means we might have to kill humans. Are you sure you can do it?" Feliciara was still worried. They had only just been reborn, and now they had to fight humans right after arriving in the main world. This conflicted feeling was probably exactly what Michelle wanted to see.
Seeing that no one replied, she brought up another concern: "Even if we're okay, it's harder to say for Astrid and the others..."
By angel rules, two-winged angels usually weren't allowed on the battlefield. Even in this special case, they were only put in the main force behind the front lines. Otherwise it would be suicide.
As for Cyrae, Feliciara and Nicora, who had started leveling up early as "once-in-a-lifetime geniuses", they were of course assigned to the vanguard assault team. Almost everyone around them had six or eight wings. There were probably spies Michelle put there to watch them!
"No use worrying now. We have to look out for ourselves," Cyrae could only shake her head helplessly. They had no choice but to charge ahead.
She suddenly felt a bit envious of Matora who was still with the First Angel Legion and hadn't submitted to Michelle yet. At least they could hide somewhere in the main world without being stuck in this dilemma.
"By the way, are you sure you don't want to stay with Astrid?" Cyrae suddenly remembered something and turned to ask Reed.
Reed only had two wings of course, but she didn't want to stay in the back with Astrid. She insisted on joining Cyrae and the others in the most dangerous vanguard team, almost shocking everyone's jaws off.
"Didn't I say before? Yvonne has good reason to worry. Just pledging we're loyal doesn't work. It's more practical to prove it with actions. Besides, if it really affects the fate of all angels, I want to do my part as a new angel!" Reed rolled her eyes at Cyrae and repeated her stance. Among the group, she had benefited most from Elara III's kindness when they first arrived, so naturally she made up her mind first on this issue.
"Don't worry, I have lots of ways to protect myself! This was my own choice anyway. You guys just need to take care of yourselves!" Seeing that everyone was still worried, Reed took out some metal balls to show them. She seemed to have made many preparations for today's battle, carefully checking all her gadgets before putting them back in her storage ring.
"Time's up, let's move out!"
Soon, Michelle's official attack order came down. Led by a ten-winged angel, all the angels around spread their wings and flew at top speed towards the Empire's base.
As the vanguard force, they only had about 100 people. But with mostly six and eight-winged members, the squad's combat power was off the charts.
These were the angel race's most elite fighters. Their mission was simple and clear - break through the Ilandra Dominion Empire's base defenses and destroy or capture the glowing magic device they planned to use to invade Edenmere!
The fact that Michelle dared to make this decision showed that the angel leaders she led didn't take humans seriously at all. They thought the vanguard alone could solve most problems.
Of course, that should have been true in theory. The combat power of six and eight-winged angels was terrifying to humans. Not to mention a whole squad of them!
But reality often turns out differently than expected.
"We're going too fast. Shouldn't we slow down a bit?" As soon as they entered enemy defense range, Cyrae felt uneasy even though they hadn't met any resistance yet. Plus the vanguard members had different individual strengths, so they were stretched out in a long line.
Of course, she didn't actually have any authority to give orders. But a few eight-winged angels at the front suddenly stopped and looked back. Thinking they might be supervisors, Cyrae quickly explained nervously:
"It's mainly Reed. She can't keep up!"
Reed only had two wings and couldn't learn high-speed flight. This explanation made sense.
"You two pull her along. She asked to join the vanguard herself. Don't miss our chance because of her!" One of the eight-winged angels yelled at Nicola and Feliciara, who were closest to Reed. He showed no mercy at all.
But just as he finished speaking, a crisp sound suddenly came from the front of the squad.
"Bang!"
Before anyone could figure out what happened...
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
"Boom!"
...the same sounds erupted one after another from the forest below. In an instant, the whole angel squad fell into chaos. Thick smoke rose from flames all around. Injured angels kept falling from the sky into the dense branches below, their fates unknown.
"Human magic attacks?" The eight-winged angel supervisor suddenly turned pale. He realized they were probably ambushed, but quickly shook his head.
"No way! Human magic can't hurt us. Even if some high-level spells could, they definitely couldn't use so many non-stop like this!"
There was no time for angels to think about it. They had to respond and fight back. Without another word, the eight-winged supervisor grabbed a companion and dove towards a patch of dense forest where the sounds seemed to be coming from.
"That doesn't sound like magic at all?" Although she didn't know what was happening up front either, Feliciara recognized the sound as something from Earth. She turned to Nicora, hoping for confirmation. "If I'm not wrong, that's..."
"Times have changed. This isn't the magic world we imagined. Quick, find somewhere to hide!" Reed was the first to snap out of her shock. She yelled a warning and led the way down into the forest.
Luckily they had fallen behind quite a bit due to their slow speed, so they weren't in the thick of the attacks. After some scrambling, all four managed to land safely on the ground.
Never mind the gunfire in the distance. The thick branches all around blocked the enemy's view, so they should be safe now. But whether to keep following orders and advance on the Empire's base became their main disagreement.