Chapter 7: The Angry Wind Angel

What the heck! Those two things ain't the same. And now's not the time to talk rubbish!

I'm fed up with Cyra. She's useless, always making things worse! Letting her try to fix this was the biggest mistake of my life.

"Nicola, don't be like that. Let me explain!" 

But it was too late. Things had gone bad. Seeing Nicola's angry hand squeeze tighter, Adrian had no choice. He took out an arrow, put a "loosen" spell on it, and stuck it in the hand grabbing his neck.

"What kind of trick is this!" Nicola yelled, pulling back her hand. She looked shocked. Made sense, since Cyra didn't mention Adrian's awakening Battle Qi earlier.

"Sorry! I know you and Feliciana were close before. But I won't give her up, no matter what!" Adrian quickly moved in front of me, making his position clear.

But his words worried me. Nicola was super strong now, way beyond Adrian. If she really attacked, he'd be in big trouble.

My situation was tricky too. No matter how bad Nicola acted, I didn't want to fight her. It'd be best if we could make up, but that seemed less and less likely now.

"Fine, let's see what you've got!" Nicola was clearly furious from all this. Suddenly, strong winds started blowing in the room, clearly coming from her. The wind got stronger and stronger.

"What's happening?" Adrian looked back at me, confused. I didn't really understand either, but I knew a bit about Nicola being a wind angel. To be safe, I quickly called Cyra over and put up a "Light Shield" to protect us.

The wind got crazy strong. Even with the shield cutting down the wind, our faces still hurt from the gusts. In seconds, the whole inn collapsed. There was wood flying everywhere for about 10 meters around. It looked like a tornado hit.

But the wind didn't last long. It stopped suddenly, and we were still standing there. Nicola's wings had turned gray - the color of wind angels. It was just like when she came back with 12 wings before, similar to my blue wing state.

Looking around was scary. A big area of houses near the inn had fallen down. Lots of people were trapped, moaning and crying out.

"Are you crazy? Do you know how much damage you've caused?" I was pretty angry. Luckily, most buildings were wood, and most people living near the adventurer's guild were strong. So hopefully not too many hurted. The stone guild building was fine.

"Who cares? I can't think about that now. You broke your promise and ran off with him. I decided to change and only love you, but now it's all gone!" Nicola's voice sounded choked up. She pointed her magic sword at Adrian, looking a bit crazy.

"This time I'm gonna cut him down and take you back! Feliciana can only be mine!"

Why is this happening? 

Things had gotten so bad, I didn't know what to say. My head was a mess. I couldn't figure out why I was suddenly so popular, with two people fighting over me. It was ridiculous!

But honestly, I felt nothing for Nicola. Even though she hinted at things before, I wish none of this had happened. Now I finally understood why I had those bad dreams guided by the Nightmare before.

Maybe it was all my fault. I should have clearly rejected her from the start. Now it was too late to say anything...

"Die!" In a blink, Nicola flew up and swooped down, swinging her sword at Adrian.

"Huh?" Suddenly, the angel in the air vanished. When I realized what happened, Adrian was already yelling in pain, holding the stump where his left arm used to be.

What just happened? I didn't see any attack, but Nicola had already struck. Now she was back up in the air where she started. It all seemed to happen in an instant...

Is this what fighting looks like when you control time? Doesn't that mean her opponent is doomed?

"Adrian!" I couldn't think about anything else. I ran to Adrian as fast as I could. He was on the ground in awful pain, blood everywhere. I almost cried. I quickly changed to my blue wing form and used the strongest water healing magic I knew.

"Get lost! Don't get in my way!" 

I was shocked when Nicola attacked me too. Just like before, I didn't see anything happen. When I realized what was going on, my body was already flying through the air. I crashed into some broken walls nearby.

"I don't know how you dodged my killing blow before, but you won't be so lucky this time!" 

She said this to Adrian. After kicking me away, Nicola turned to Adrian on the ground and raised her sword again without hesitation.

"No!" 

I was terrified and shouted with all my strength to stop her. But surprisingly, Nicola didn't cut Adrian down. Someone suddenly stepped in and blocked the deadly attack.

"Angel friend, you're in our city of Crescent. It's not good to kill people like this, you know?" 

Old man Adonis suddenly appeared in front of Nicola, totally out of nowhere. He didn't actually catch the sword with his hand. You could clearly see a weird, super black "thing" in his right palm. The sword sank deep into it, like it was going into another world.

"Who are you? How did you see through my attack?" 

Nicola's eyes narrowed. She clearly didn't expect someone to jump in. She quickly pulled her sword out of the black thing and flew back up into the sky, watching him very carefully.

"He's the leader of Crescent City and head of the Sage Council - Adonis! If I'm not wrong, you must be Nicola, the 'Inheritor' that Edenmere announced before? Looks like we meet again!" 

The fortune teller Meredith came over smiling with Judith. They had rushed over when they saw trouble in the city. Meredith had met Nicola before in Elara Woods, so she recognized her right away.

"Can you really beat her? What we saw before looked like time stopping, but not quite like magic. She didn't chant any spells..." 

Judith quickly went behind Adonis. Even though he was the strongest human, she was still worried about her son's safety as a mother.

"I can't be sure..." Adonis answered quietly with a bitter smile. 

"She's called an 'Inheritor', but her control of time is just as good as mine. Luckily, it looks like she hasn't fully awakened yet. Maybe I can just barely fight her!"

"To be safe, how about adding some magic buffs?" 

Meredith suggested right away. Without another word, she lowered her head and started chanting softly, clearly getting ready to use magic.

"What are you trying to do?" 

Nicola noticed something was off from far away. But with Adonis protecting Meredith, she was nervous after their quick clash before. She didn't dare rush over to stop the spell.

"Combo Element Buff Magic Circle!" 

The chant finished quickly. A small, fancy magic circle appeared in Meredith's hand. She put it right on Adonis's body. There was a flash of light, and a huge version of the little circle appeared in the air around Adonis for a moment.

"Friend, Adrian is the Fate Breaker that our Sage Council worked hard to find. He's super important for humanity's future. If you have some personal beef, please let it go. We can even make it up to you somehow!"

After getting the magic boost, Adonis suddenly seemed way more powerful. He looked much more confident talking to Nicola now. Then he calmly explained the Sage Council's goal.