Chapter 34 - Destined Calamity

"I'm not sure about that..." 

Kurnel shook his head and replied.

"It was brought back by Lady Michelle from somewhere, supposedly created by one of her allies! While some think this thing is very useful for the Dark Continent, I disagree. At the very least, I absolutely do not want to be subservient to this thing!"

"Isn't that too mystical?" 

I kicked the "corpse" on the ground, suddenly feeling a bit confused. This is a magical world, so why do all these strange technological products keep appearing?

Like the previous "Eye of Galadra", and now robots, what's next, Gundam? 

I thought to myself, could Michelle's ally also be a transmigrator?

From the available information, it seems these technological creations were likely secretly made. But even with that assumption, there are still many doubts. The level of technology is far higher than this world's.

And with just the abilities of a single transmigrator, no matter how super genius they were before, it's hard to imagine achieving this.

"So you were thinking of using us to get rid of this guy from the beginning?"

Seeing Kurnel sit on the ground and start resting, seemingly with no wariness of me and Nicola, I couldn't help but frown slightly.

"Why do you trust us so much, just because we've interacted once before?"

"That's just one reason. Actually, I wasn't too sure at first. But when I was at a disadvantage, you were still willing to stop and listen to me..."

Kurnel lifted his head and thought for a bit before replying.

"Based on my experiences, other angels would absolutely not do this! It was only then that I realized I could take this chance to utilize you..."

"A lizard that can think this much?" 

Hearing this, Nicola seemed a bit incredulous. She then immediately turned to ask me,

"What past interactions have you had? He might have some ulterior motives..."

"Hey bird! What do you mean, am I easy to bully? I'm just temporarily lowering my stance to cooperate with you, don't think I've surrendered! Otherwise do you want to fight again?"

Hearing this, Kurnel was immediately unhappy. He jumped up from the ground angrily, axe in hand, shouting at Nicola in the sky.

"Come on then! Let's see who's stronger!"

Nicola was also fearless. Despite being heavily injured and continuously bleeding, she still looked unwilling to back down, intent on determining a victor. 

"Are you crazy? In this state you still want to compete? Although he's a monster, we're not enemies. Why make things so stiff?"

I quickly flew up to use healing magic on Nicola's wounds. The tempers of monsters are so volatile, Kurnel restraining from swinging his axe was already considered controlled.

"And you don't like attacking magic, fine, but why don't you even learn some healing magic? What if you get injured? At least heal yourself a bit!"

"It's fine, I have you to treat me!"

Hearing her casual reply, I was a bit speechless. I could only sternly point out,

"What if I'm not around? Or if you're alone, what would you do? Have you thought about how serious this is!"

"Since things here are settled, I'll get going first! Don't worry, my mission is just to monitor and protect Blanche, not to catch you two!"

Ignoring Nicola's reaction, Kurnel didn't want to keep staying with us angels. He directly turned and prepared to leave. But then seemed to recall something and turned back to ask us,

"You two teleported Blanche away earlier?"

"Wasn't it your escape tool that did it?"

I was a bit stunned by the question and asked back. I suddenly felt something fishy about this. I couldn't help but sneak another glance at Nicola beside me.

"You wouldn't understand this. Just consider her dead now!"

Nicola thought for a bit and shook her head, replying.

"Hmph!"

Hearing this, Kurnel was very unhappy. He turned and left. But I called out to stop him again.

"Wait! Returning like this, aren't you afraid something might happen? Michelle won't let you off easily right?"

He was already in a precarious position, and had also failed this mission. Even if Michelle didn't know he destroyed the robot, he probably couldn't escape punishment.

"I'm not that stupid! The Dark Continent is huge, and the Flame God hasn't appeared for years. Her controlled regions are still insufficient for me to have nowhere to hide..."

The lizard man arrogantly vanished into the darkness. Within the illumination range of the light spell, now only me and Nicola remained.

"Seems not all monsters submit to Michelle. There are still many third party forces in the Dark Continent. We can perhaps utilize this..." 

Seeing this situation, Nicola couldn't help but sigh.

After some time, her wounds were finally healed with my help. She then descended to the ground, closely examining the robot's corpse.

"How was this thing made? With the low technological level of this world, where did the supporting industrial technologies come from..."

"It was really you who did Blanche in right? Is she dead or not?"

I had already thought about the robot problems, but couldn't find suitable explanations. My main thoughts now were still on Blanche.

"I guess so, but it wasn't on purpose..."

Hearing me, Nicola looked around. At some point, the sun had slowly risen, casting the sky in a red glow. 

"What a coincidence!"

She suddenly gave a helpless laugh, and suddenly said to me,

"Do you recognize this place?"

"Here?"

I was a bit stunned, and quickly looked around. With the chase earlier, plus the dark skies, I hadn't paid attention to the surroundings at all. I only knew we were in some mountains. But now with the bright skies, I could see everything clearly.

"This...isn't this the first place we met Michelle after escaping from the Dark Continent?"

Looking at the familiar surroundings, I couldn't help but cry out. We had left here to go to Edenmere originally. But after a huge detour, we were back!

"That's right. Later the allied army of angels and Astralrealm Kingdom were also stationed here to surround and suppress Michelle. But they had long withdrawn already."

Hearing Nicola say this, I suddenly understood.

"Could it be Blanche was done in by you..."

Previously when confirming the one who captured Nicola was Blanche, I had thought Edenmere's messenger was wrong, or Blanche's identity card was just taken by someone else. It seems I was too naive.

"You learned time control?"

"Not really, just unintentionally grasped a bit of it during the fight."

Nicola shook her head, pondering for a bit before explaining.

"But that said, at least I've experienced this feeling once! As long as I slowly comprehend it, I'll fully master it eventually!"

"That's good then. At least with Blanche drugging you this time, it wasn't without gains. I was kept up all night worrying!"

With the sun now up and large amounts of light elements, I had recovered quite a bit of strength. This was also encouraging. If Nicola's strength greatly increased, facing Michelle in the future would be less hopeless at least.

"You're thinking of time control too simply!"

But to my surprise, Nicola just sighed at my words, reminding me,

"For example, everything Blanche experienced this time shows that in this world, a destined future simply can't be changed. So even with time control abilities, they probably won't be of much use."

"This is..."

Hearing her say this, I also felt it was a bit bizarre. It was just like the ancient saying of predestined tribulations, and Blanche was the person bearing them!

"Forget it, it's already daylight. Let's head back first! Cyra should be awake now right?"

Not bothering with what I was thinking, Nicola stuffed the robot on the ground into her storage ring. She stood up.

"Crap! She's still at the family's house we're renting!"

I was shocked, mentally crying out. I hurriedly flew up towards Makalan City.

...

To conceal ourselves, after Nicola and I returned to the city outskirts, we specifically chose a nearby forest to land in. We then hid our wings and walked the rest of the way.

But before even reaching the house, we could already see Cyra standing at the door. She stared at the both of us, a clear look of disdain on her face.

"You two didn't secretly sneak into the city last night right?"

"This is..."

I couldn't help but feel awkward. Last night I had clearly said we were just going out to scout the situation. But then we didn't return for the entire night. Only coming back now in the morning.

"Isn't it nice having a bed all to yourself? We were showing concern for you."

Nicola answered unconcernedly, her skin thick as usual, not mentioning the dangerous experiences at all.

"No matter how alone I am, can it be more comfortable than the inns and hotels in the city?"

It seems Cyra had long guessed what Nicola was up to leaving last night. She twisted her lips, wanting to vent but unable to. After all, things were already over, no need to dwell on it further.

"You three are up so early?"

Driver Carl suddenly walked out from the carriage. He had probably just woken up, but saw us chatting outside the house. He froze up in surprise.

"Are we setting off immediately?"