Chapter 74: Return to the Dark Continent 

"Cyra! Don't keep flying around in the corridor, hurry and get out of the building!" 

I shouted at her while hovering outside the window, but this girl turned around the corner, quickly disappearing. As for those Nightmares chasing after us, the vast majority followed her down the corridor, with only a few stragglers noticing me outside the window and slowly floating out.

"Feliciana! They're coming after us," Norma cried out behind me, immediately growing worried. 

"Will Cyra be okay dealing with so many monsters alone?"

"Let's get rid of these Nightmares first!"

I didn't dare be negligent, the crisis before us had not yet passed! I immediately cast a light spell.

"Luckily these Nightmares move slowly and don't have much attacking power either. Their combat strength and intelligence aren't too high, as long as we don't let them get too close we'll be fine."

Norma, having seen me kill these monsters before, also tried to imitate me by casting magic. Unfortunately, with only four wings, the power of her light shots and purification were not that great. Monsters that I could take out with just two or three purification spells, she needed at least four or five casts. 

I suddenly felt that there was no need to worry too much about Cyra either. At least with her escape speed, these Nightmares definitely wouldn't be able to catch up. 

Before long, Norma and I had worked together to wipe out all the Nightmares that had chased out. 

However, after waiting in midair outside the Tivi Palace for a while, we still didn't see Cyra fly out from any other windows. It was as if she had disappeared inside the building, without a trace.

"Could something have happened to her? She only has two wings after all..." 

Seeing the situation, Norma couldn't help but start worrying again.

"Hard to say, what if she left from a window on the other side?"

I didn't know how to reassure her and was also starting to feel uneasy. I should have followed after her earlier, this gal is always causing people to worry.

"It's too dark inside the building now, recklessly going in would be too dangerous. Why don't we go to the Royal Hall first, that's where there are usually the most people, we'll be able to find help!"

Norma suggested, looking in the direction of the main entrance to the Tivi Palace.

"And if Cyra did escape, she would also likely go to that place."

"Perhaps you can go ahead, if it's just these Nightmares it should be fine. I have some other things to do..."

I didn't intend to act together with her for the time being. Because the abnormal skyscape of Edenmere reminded me of a certain familiar place again.

"Are you going to act alone?"

Hearing this, Norma seemed a little uneasy. Although my rank was higher than hers, Edenmere looked too bizarre at the moment. She could also feel that the situation now likely involved more than just the Nightmares.

"It shouldn't be a big problem for now, I just want to confirm some guesses." 

I nodded, and quickly advised her,

"Don't linger outside for too long, once you get to a crowded area hurry and gather everyone together, I'll catch up soon after."

"I hope this is just another faulty judgement on my part..."

After parting ways, watching Norma descend towards the ground, I didn't dare waste any time and shot straight upwards.

Last time, the magic circle Reed created drained all the light elements in the city. At the time I had flown high into the sky with Cyra to observe, confirming it was just a false alarm.

But this time was different. More and more facts proved my guesses were right. Like the increasingly thin concentration of light elements as I flew higher, and the increasingly strong aura of darkness...

"As expected, Edenmere has also been transported to the Dark Continent." 

Looking at the barren desert in the distance, I murmured. Although visibility wasn't good under the cloud cover, I could still distinguish it at a glance from Edenmere's usual landscape covered in forests.

I suddenly felt extremely bitter inside. After leaving for so many days, I still hadn't completely escaped and had returned to this old place. After observing for a while longer, I could even recognize some familiar scenes outside the city.

It seemed the current location was still within the lake area I had left from before. After we departed, the monsters had not moved the location of the "Eye of Galadra" control terminal.

As for the exchange range, it was still based on the lake's size, so the outermost periphery of Edenmere City was not fully included, with many buildings even cut off halfway.

According to known intelligence, the positioning terminal of the "Eye of Galadra" should be a portable mobile device, long lost in the town of Tethys. But it now appeared the monsters had found it, and even brought it into Edenmere.

As for who brought it in. In my opinion, the Fourth Legion which had recently returned was the most suspicious. If everything was the work of conservative collaborators, it wouldn't be surprising for the Fourth Legion to have conservative members hidden within.

The key was, was it worth doing this?

Even if they were conservatives, their goal should only be isolationism. Exchanging all of Edenmere like this, even to the Dark Continent, I really couldn't understand it. Was some important reason being overlooked here?

Without a doubt, this must have been a deliberate, premeditated operation. Large swarms of dark silhouettes had already gathered at the southern border of the exchange, pouring towards the city center. 

As expected, these were probably all magical beasts, it seemed they had already started invading Edenmere.

I had to hurry and warn everyone to take shelter!

I delayed no longer, and dove down swiftly, aiming for the Royal Hall I had just promised to meet Norma at. 

Just as I was descending, a dazzling white light flashed across the southern city district. This was an effect only possible with high-level light magic, it seemed angels had encountered those monsters and started fighting. 

"Norma? Cyra?"

I shot into the Royal Hall, but the entire hall was pitch black, and I couldn't tell if anyone was even there. I could only call out loudly.

"Feliciana?" 

Norma's voice rang out in response, coming from around the service counter it seemed. I strode over but unexpectedly collided fully into something soft.

"Ow, be more careful!"

This voice was very familiar, it took me a good while before I remembered, it should be Gwen. Looks like she was fine too.

"Then the last one must be Juliet right?"

After my eyes had somewhat adjusted to the darkness, I finally made out three silhouettes around me, I couldn't see their appearances clearly at all. But I could probably guess who they were since these two were usually inseparable. 

But just as I finished speaking, a dazzling white brilliance rose in the hall, instantly illuminating the surroundings. It turned out Norma was worried I couldn't see, and had cast a small light spell.

"Feliciana, did you finish up whatever you were doing? Have you seen Cyra?"

She immediately asked about Cyra, leaving me feeling a little overwhelmed.

"Nope, didn't she come here herself?"

I looked up at the light orb which quickly dissipated after not long, surrounding us in endless darkness once more. I suddenly felt a little strange.

"Why did you guys stay indoors where you can't see anything? Shouldn't it be much better outside?"

"Some people from the angel guards came by earlier, telling us not to wander around outside because a large number of monsters had suddenly appeared in the city..."

Juliet cut in to answer. She, Gwen, and Norma were probably all the same, although angels, they likely hadn't fought much since birth. When encountering this kind of emergency they had never seen before, the only thing they could think of was to hide.

"So you already noticed the monster invasion? And here I was about to inform you guys about it. I saw a whole bunch of monsters surging this way from the sky just now."

I breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed the angel guards had reacted swiftly. Right now, continuous roars and magical explosions could be heard in the distance. The two sides had started fighting. 

From outside the building, piercing shrieks could even be heard from the sky. These should belong to flying monsters.

"Just what on earth happened? How did so many monsters get in? And I feel the light elements around us disappearing rapidly. Could it be another experiment accident like last time?"

Gwen was completely unclear about the situation. From a normal perspective, Edenmere was isolated from the main world, making it almost impossible to invade. But the enemy had sinister black technology! This kind of shady warfare through exchange of spaces couldn't be avoided even if we were in a different dimension.

"The specific reason is a bit complicated, I can't fully explain for now..." 

I figured the issue with the exchange of spaces wasn't something I could easily convey to them in a short time, so I could only remind them, 

"But what can be certain is that Edenmere is unsafe now, and we may not be able to wait for rescue from outside the city."

Due to the comprehensive final of the Tournament taking place, many angels including Nicola and Reed had left the city district to watch the matches in the forest clearing. Even Elara was probably there.

Because of this, most of the top fighting angels had been left in Edenmere's forests, completely cut off from us. 

On the flip side, the control terminal for the "Eye of Galadra" on the central island of the lake was likely transported over as well. If Nicola and the others could seize control of this device early on, there might still be hope for us.

"Is it just you few? What about the other angels from the Tivi Palace? Like people from the defence force, and the guards?" 

I suddenly felt staying in Royal Hall might not be very safe either. Our available fighting forces were far too few at the moment. If possible, it would be best to retreat deeper into the Tivi Palace again. But the pitch darkness was also a huge problem. Now that things had developed to this level, those Nightmares were the least of our worries.