"Am I in the hotel room?"
A couple of hours later, after we had returned to our lodgings, Adrian woke up from his sleep. According to Cyrae's diagnosis, he had mainly passed out from using too much Battle Qi. Thankfully, he hadn't been unconscious for too long.
"Of course! And congratulations on beating Nicola all by yourself. She has promised not to bother us anymore about our relationship!"
As soon as he opened his eyes, I was ready to praise him lots and help him feel at ease.
But really, we're talking about Nicola here! The Wind Angel who controls time - even I'm not confident I could win in a one-on-one fight with her right now. But Adrian somehow managed to do it. I must say, this Battle Qi thing is quite something.
"That's good. Finally, this troublesome matter is settled..."
Adrian nodded and let out a sigh of relief. Even though he had just woken up, he didn't want to rest. He quickly took out a small box from his storage ring and handed it to me, saying:
"Oh right! This is a necklace I saw at the Rare Goods Exhibition Hall. I thought it would suit you!"
"Huh? You bought something there?"
I was quite surprised, not expecting Adrian to actually purchase anything during our visit. It seemed to be jewelry, but since it was classified as a rare item, it couldn't be just a decorative necklace.
Unlike the arrow I bought, which didn't even have packaging, this box looked very fancy. Besides having many patterns, it had words carved on the lid: "Soul Light Necklace."
"Soul Light Necklace?"
I couldn't help but wonder, already guessing the necklace's purpose just from its name. Sure enough, when I opened it, the rush of elemental energy and the text on the manual instantly confirmed my thoughts.
"According to records, it was discovered about three thousand years ago on an island at the southernmost part of the continent. It changed hands many times until the Adventurers' Guild collected it about a hundred years ago. It's said to be a magical artifact from an ancient civilization. The wearer has the ability to self-resurrect and preserve their soul, but the actual effect depends on whether the necklace has absorbed enough external elements. It's estimated that it takes several hundred years to fully charge once. Experts now estimate it's at about 80% capacity!"
After reading the whole manual, I could only feel speechless. Without doubt, Adrian isn't someone who wastes money. The 80% charge level should be more than enough to fully resurrect a normal human or low-rank warrior, but for an angel of my rank, the effect would be hard to predict.
Moreover, I already have resurrection abilities! Most water element magic belongs to the recovery type, and I don't lack even advanced resurrection magic. I can cast it without even chanting! The only drawback is that I can't use it multiple times in succession.
So in my opinion, this "Soul Light Necklace" would be more useful if Adrian kept it for himself! Plus, it probably wasn't cheap, right? Although fully resurrecting someone of Adrian's level might be a bit difficult, it could still help keep him alive when I'm not around.
"I know your level isn't low now, and I've heard that you can use certain resurrection magic! But don't forget one thing - Nicola and the others can't. You might be able to save others, but what if you're the one in danger? So for everyone's safety, it makes the most sense for you to wear this necklace!"
Before I could speak up, Adrian had already seen through my intention, and threw a bunch of reasoning at me.
Seeing how determined he was, and since he had just won a duel, I didn't want to go against his wishes right away. So I could only accept this gift and put the necklace around my neck.
I have to say, this was the first time in my life wearing a necklace. The Soul Light gem felt cool against my chest - it was quite strange.
Fortunately, I had also bought a gift for Adrian. When I saw him playing with the "Deep Sea Ghost" arrow in his hands, I finally felt relieved. Although it didn't have the same novelty as guns and ammunition from Earth, I was worried Adrian wouldn't like it. That would have been a waste of money. Moreover, with this exchange of gifts, it didn't feel like I was just accepting his present for free.
"See, I told you he would wake up soon!"
Suddenly, the room's door was pushed open. It was Cyrae. Seeing Adrian safe and sound, she happily asked him, "How do you feel? It's about time - if you're feeling okay, let's go to Nicola's room to hear her detailed plans for tonight."
"Oh? Are we starting to take action? Of course I'm fine! Besides, we're dealing with that Reider guy - how could I possibly be left out!"
Adrian hadn't forgotten that Reider was one of the forces that had tried to seize Lantine Oasis. Upon hearing this, he jumped up from the bed, looking completely energetic.
On our way, Cyrae couldn't stop praising Adrian's strategy during the duel. Even though she had inherited some of Elara's memories and was quite knowledgeable, cases like Adrian's where someone could develop their abilities to such a degree and win despite being weaker were extremely rare.
"Everyone's here... No time to waste, let's begin!"
Adrian wasn't originally part of the plan, so when Nicola saw him, her eyes showed a hint of surprise, but she had no other reaction.
Next, she took out a map of the capital Kyndrill from her ring - who knows where she got it from - and spread it out on the table.
"The biggest obstacle we face now is the city's defensive formation. If we can't break through this barrier, it will be very difficult to find Reider's exact location!"
Getting to the point, Nicola immediately identified the main problem.
City-specific large-scale barriers aren't really anything new - we had encountered them before at the military base near Sifur. However, that one was specially optimized to prevent enemy reconnaissance, while the capital's version is a very classic and practical defensive type.
Simply put, in a national capital, there should be extremely strong defensive formation pre-built. And this can't be ordinary defensive formations: first, it blocks magic, energy, arrows, and physical attacks - basically every type of attack is blocked. Especially with multiple large energy supply points in the city, even Forbidden Spells would have trouble breaking through! You could say it has almost no weaknesses.
This is also the fundamental reason why even though the rebels has been besieging Kyndrill for many days, they still can't break through!
"But something's not right! I understand that the Ilandra Dominion Empire has always been powerful, and it's normal for the capital to have strong formations. But there are always pros and cons - to maintain such a huge defensive formation must consume massive amounts of energy! How have they managed to stand firm for so many days while under siege?"
However, faced with Nicola's conclusion, Adrian couldn't help but raise an objection. Having personally controlled the huge floating city of Lantine Oasis before, he was very sensitive to energy supply issues.
I definitely agreed. This was indeed a major question. As the saying goes, war is mainly about logistics! No matter how resource-rich the capital is, they can't keep consuming like this indefinitely.
"According to my calculations, for a city barrier of Kyndrill's level, without any rear support arriving, it should normally run out of all backup elements after about three days!"
After thinking for a moment, Cyrae chimed in.
Here's where the problem lies - the capital has been surrounded for almost a week now, yet shows no signs of weakening. This could only mean that Reider must have found some unknown method of resupply.