"We definitely can't turn back!" Nicora spoke up first. She thought she was the strongest, so she made this decision without hesitating.
"Why don't you guys run to somewhere first? There's an Empire village nearby to the west. Let's meet up there! I'll stay behind to check if other angels are chasing us, then I'll come find you!"
"Why are you suddenly deciding things on your own..." Feliciara didn't expect this move from her. But before she could fully react, Nicora had disappeared into the trees.
"Forget it, don't chase her! It's chaos out there now, we can't catch up anyway!" Cyrae didn't expect this either. She quickly grabbed Feliciara to stop her.
"But should we really run away? If we do, there's no going back. Edenmere might hunt us down forever!"
It was a tough choice. As a former member of the "Post-Event Clearing", Cyrae knew how angels dealt with traitors. But she couldn't ask everyone to risk their lives in battle either. They were only average strength, and the enemy even had guns. They couldn't handle it!
"I still think we should keep following orders! Like I said, we're angels now. We need to prove ourselves to clear up misunderstandings. This war is about the angels' survival. The former Elara treated us well, so we should help fulfill her last wish. Plus we're not ordinary people anymore..." Reed was quiet for a while, then shared her thoughts again. She looked at Cyrae meaningfully and asked, "What do you think?"
"If that's what you've decided, I have no objections!" Cyrae immediately understood what Reed meant. She knew she shouldn't be the one to back out, so she just laughed dryly in response.
With the others decided, Feliciara had no reason to run off alone. She actually agreed with Reed all along, but wasn't confident enough to share her opinion before.
With everything settled, the three continued towards the Empire base as ordered.
The angels attacking from the sky suffered big losses from the Empire's long-range weapons ambush. But their high rank still mattered. Even though many died at first from the surprise attack, quite a few high-ranking angels survived thanks to their experience and strength.
They quickly organized counterattacks, diving into the trees like lightning to drag out Empire soldiers hiding nearby. But there was too much cover around, so they couldn't clear the area quickly. This completely held up the vanguard's advance.
Except for three angels that no one really noticed! During this time, they snuck close to the Empire base's outer area under cover of the forest.
They didn't get there without trouble though. Cyrae and the others still ran into quite a few Empire soldiers. Luckily, six-winged angels were incredibly strong. Normal humans were no match at all. Even some soldiers with "guns" were quickly defeated if the angels were prepared and used magic.
"I didn't know I was so powerful!" Feliciara was the most excited after taking out several waves of Empire troops. Unlike Cyrae who was battle-hardened, this was Feliciara's first real fight. Though they all tacitly agreed not to kill enemies directly, the combat power they showed was still incredible.
"So this is this world's 'gun'?" Reed stayed calm as usual. She focused mostly on the Empire soldiers' weapons that had ambushed the angel troops earlier. She now held one of the captured guns.
It was a club-like object made of hard wood. At first glance it looked a bit like the muskets when firearms first appeared on Earth. But its power and firing speed were completely different.
"It does use bullets, not just magic. There's even some gunpowder residue in the barrel! But magic circles are involved in firing and loading bullets. No wonder..."
She quickly found something fishy on the back of the gun and the bullets. There was a tiny magic circle carved there. Strictly speaking, this thing wasn't a pure firearm. It was a "gun-like weapon" that mixed magic and technology. The gunpowder was just there to make up for the magic circle's lack of power.
Besides that, they also captured a larger one - a "magic cannon" that worked on similar principles.
"Angels aren't afraid of magic, but bullets shot by magic count as physical attacks. Looks like the Empire army made these guns and cannons specially to deal with angels. They must have prepared for a long time!"
Cyrae quickly spotted the trick too. She'd been to the main world before, but never heard of humans having things like this.
"I don't think it's that simple. Even with magic involved, designs like rifling are basically impossible for a world that's never used guns before!" Reed clearly implied something, but they had more urgent affairs. She quickly packed away the spoils of war and cast a invisibility spell over the three of them. Then they quietly left the forest and arrived in front of the Empire army's base.
The base covered a huge area. But its main purpose was to maintain the space magic device in the center that was invading Edenmere. From far away, you could see a giant magic cannon with a very thick barrel placed in the middle of a huge magic circle. It kept shooting bright, dazzling beams into the sky!
They were close enough now to clearly see that the beam was as thick as several dozen people holding hands. Of course, there were groups of Empire soldiers patrolling around the magic device. The walls were full of magicians. There were even many large airships flying around on guard! The whole base's defenses were like a military fortress. It seemed really hard to sneak in with just invisibility magic.
"What should we do? There's only a few of us. Should we wait for the main force?" Feliciara was the first to hesitate when she saw this setup. But Reed shook her head. She took out some metal balls she had prepared from her ring and said:
"I recognize that magic circle. It's probably for collecting elements from the surroundings. If you can just attack the magic device up close, I'm confident I can destroy it!"
"But just the three of us can't possibly..." Cyrae shook her head, about to object. But suddenly she saw Reed had already rushed out alone.
"Who's there? Enemy spotted!" The Empire's light mages quickly sensed something was off. They kept casting tracking spells to mark Reed's position while sending warning signals into the base.
But before a squad of Empire soldiers could fully charge out, they saw Reed, now forced to become visible, cast a spell.
"Crap, turn around quick!" Cyrae and Feliciara knew this was "Five Light Ten Color". They quickly closed their eyes.
"Five Light Ten Color" only lasted about 10-20 seconds, but all the Empire soldiers looking at Reed suffered huge mental attacks. They all fell to the ground, rolling around.
Only Reed, who cast the spell, was unfazed. She took the chance to spread her wings and charge straight into the base.
Of course Cyrae and Feliciara followed right behind her. Besides occasionally finishing off a few soldiers who escaped the spell, they found they didn't have to spend much effort. Before long, they reached the Empire's magic device.
"What now?" Before Cyrae finished speaking, she saw Reed throw all the metal balls in her hand into the glowing "cannon mouth". Then she quickly turned around, grabbed the two of them, and retreated fast out of the base.
"These are element collectors I made myself. Throwing them into this device should disrupt its operation and destroy it. I originally planned to do a research experiment with Nicora's power, but I didn't get the chance, so I had to use them all up here..." They vaguely heard Reed explain as they escaped.
"Research? What experiment?" Feliciara was stunned. But the next second, an extremely bright light suddenly exploded behind them. Even with their backs turned, it still hurt their eyes.
"It worked!" They heard Cyrae shout excitedly. When the bright light faded, they looked back. The Empire base had turned into a huge, bottomless pit. It was terrifying!
No humans could possibly survive this explosion. The three angels only escaped thanks to their super strong magic defense and flying ability.
"So... it's all over? Just the three of us solved Edenmere's crisis? Michelle and the angel leaders shouldn't have any complaints about us now, right? We won?"
Feliciara couldn't help taking a deep breath. She rubbed her eyes, still not believing this was all real.