"Is that really true? Why didn't you say so earlier?!"
I hadn't expected Fernando to recommend him as well. That show of loyalty sent Vaksham into a rush of exhilaration, and he stood up at once.
After all, based on what Fernando had described earlier, the benefits of joining that team were the sort of things one could only dream of—let alone the fact that it could even bring Miriam back to life. No one would let a once-in-a-lifetime chance like that slip away. Vaksham's attitude immediately did a full one‑eighty.
"In that case, I'll take your advice! Once I successfully join, no matter how you look at it, it's a guaranteed win with no losses!"
"But while I'm gone, you must keep yourself safe," Fernando cautioned. "And try not to provoke the Kingdom of Astralrealm anymore, or you'll bring disaster down on your own head."
Seeing that his purpose here had been achieved, Fernando nodded in satisfaction. After reminding Vaksham once more to keep a low profile, he raised the teleportation badge in his hand and pressed it to his chest.
"…Strange. Why isn't it responding?"
More than ten seconds passed. The scene he'd expected—his entire body being teleported away—never happened. Frowning, Fernando took the badge off and tried again. Still nothing.
"What's wrong?" Vaksham asked, bewildered after watching for a while. "Do you need to recite some kind of activation spell?"
"It shouldn't be like this. I remember it definitely worked when we tested it at the beginning… unless…"
Fernando inspected the badge, then weighed it in his hand again and again. His expression changed instantly. But he didn't dare fully commit to his suspicion. With a darkened face, he said, "It feels… a bit lighter than I remember. Don't tell me it was swapped out?"
"How is that possible? It's been just you and me here the whole time—how could it have been swapped out…? You're not implying it was me, are you?!"
Vaksham nearly sprang off the ground. This had nothing to do with him, and it was only natural he'd react like that when he suddenly felt wronged.
As for the real culprit, it was of course me—still invisible, secretly lurking nearby.
The moment Fernando produced the badge and explained what it did, I immediately thought of a way to keep him here. Adrian had just warned me: under no circumstances could I let Fernando get away. So, to counter that teleportation method of his—always vanishing without warning—I took advantage of a moment when he wasn't paying attention and directly converted the badge's internal core material into free, dispersed elemental form. That was also why Fernando felt it had become slightly lighter in his hand.
This kind of small‑scale, destructive reality manipulation was no longer difficult for me at all.
At first, my only worry was that spreading my blue wings while invisible might cause a subtle disturbance and expose me early. But Fernando and Vaksham had had quite a few drinks together, and their senses seemed dulled. From start to finish, they didn't notice anything.
"Forget it. I'll find another way back," Fernando said after multiple attempts came to nothing. "Among my familiars, I have a Hiddenwing Bird that can provide long‑duration flight support. As long as I fly to the nearest city with a teleportation array, everything will be easy."
After repeated tries ended in failure, Fernando had no choice but to abandon the badge and choose a different method.
But with me standing right here, there was no way I was going to watch him walk away.
Judging by the time, at Adrian and the others' pace, they should have finished searching all the nearby caves by now. They might even be quietly organizing the hostages to withdraw.
"Not so fast. Neither of you is leaving this place tonight!"
It looked like it was finally time to stall these two big bosses as much as possible. With that thought, I dropped my invisibility without hesitation and shouted, stopping Fernando just as he was about to jump off the platform's edge.
"It's you!"
Both of them were obviously startled by my sudden appearance, but the moment Fernando recovered, he recognized me immediately. Staring in disbelief, he demanded, "Feliciana—why are you here?"
Vaksham had clearly heard something about my name and exploits as well. But when he saw the five pairs of vivid blue wings unfurled behind me, he seemed unsure and asked for confirmation:
"Is she the one you mentioned before—suspected to be the reincarnation of a water angel, but still a useless nobody who's nowhere near awakening?"
"Probably," Fernando said. "But if she's here, then Adrian should be nearby too… which means they're most likely here to rescue the hostages!"
Fernando really lived up to his reputation as the most troublesome one. In just a few exchanges, he had already seen through our true objective.
If anyone else heard that, they might not react much. But the moment Vaksham realized Adrian himself was very likely inside his lair causing trouble, his mood instantly became unstable.
Even though he had just agreed to Fernando's advice and decided to put revenge on hold, his enemy had delivered himself to his doorstep—storming into his home, no less. Vaksham could no longer restrain his desire to avenge Miriam. He suddenly threw his head back and let out a piercing dragon roar that even broke through the information‑suppression barrier.
"The boss's order—enemy intrusion detected! Initiate the highest level of security immediately!"
Down below, the human underlings—who had been half‑asleep—were jolted awake by the roar. Over a hundred of them surged into motion at once. They assembled by squads with practiced efficiency and began searching every cave passage for intruders.
With that kind of mobilization, even with invisibility, Adrian and the others would be discovered sooner or later. Worse, Vaksham still wasn't at ease—he actually abandoned Fernando and me, jumped down to the ground by himself, and joined the search personally.
"How can you do that?!"
I was frantic. I hadn't expected that the moment I revealed myself, one of the two would slip away. If that dragon ruined the rescue, how was I supposed to face Adrian afterward?
But Fernando clearly wasn't going to give me any chance to chase after Vaksham. The instant my attention wavered, a dragon‑shaped familiar blazing with dazzling light came shrieking toward me from the corner of my eye.
"Looks like I still have to deal with you first!"
The one launching the attack was, of course, Fernando. Annoyed, I turned and shot back coldly. I couldn't even be bothered to dodge the incoming "Light Dragon." I simply raised a palm and met it head‑on—dispersing it into nothing in an instant.
Before I mastered my authority over the water element, handling a move like that might have taken real effort. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't a threat anymore.
"To reach the ten‑wing tier in such a short time… you really do have something," Fernando said. His expression turned much more solemn when his Demon‑Taming Art failed to achieve anything. Perhaps he had sensed pressure from my power. When he struck again, he unleashed three familiars at once.
"Blazing Fire Phoenix!"
"Dark‑Devouring Dragon!"
"Thunderbolt Giant Lizard!"
I remembered Brennan once saying he'd never heard of anyone on the continent who could release multiple familiars at the same time. Perhaps only the founder of the Demon‑Taming Art had that kind of ability.
But for me, a few extra familiars didn't make much difference. Besides, I had something of my own to answer them—my Water Abyss Sword.
In an instant, with nothing more than a flicker of intent, six magnificent azure longswords materialized around me. I couldn't help feeling mildly surprised—the number was a full double what I'd originally expected to summon.
Three of them were naturally used to intercept the familiars. In just a single exchange, the three beasts about to reach me were shattered head‑on by the Water Abyss Swords. At the same time, I hurled the other three straight at Fernando himself.
"How about you taste what the 'trash' you once looked down on can really do?"
Even as I said it, I didn't actually expect those three Water Abyss Swords alone to kill him. We'd traded blows several times before; I already knew his speed and movement patterns well.
Sure enough, at the last possible moment he twisted into a series of bizarre angles and dodged every strike—and still had the presence of mind to fire off a few attacks at me as a counter.
After that, I kept summoning blades along Fernando's retreat line and launching relentless long‑range pursuit. My ten‑wing tier wasn't for show. And since his moves were basically useless against me, it was only a matter of gradually forcing him into a corner with nowhere left to run—then delivering the finishing blow—
"Huh? I missed?"
I didn't expect it, but the final Water Abyss Sword—meant to pierce his heart—was avoided when he wrenched his body aside in midair. It only punched through his shoulder instead.
Fernando, who had been trying to leap off the platform to evade, fell like a diving hawk, slamming down headfirst onto the ground.
"Looks like the stronger a creature is, the weaker the water‑element control effect becomes."
I hurried down after him to check. As expected, he wasn't dead right away. Even badly injured and after falling from that height, Fernando could still barely move.
The Water Abyss Sword wasn't just about dehydrating an enemy anymore. Once it pierced someone, the elemental makeup of their entire body would begin to disintegrate, ultimately converting into free, dispersed elements—pure energy.
But the effect spreading from the wound in Fernando's shoulder was clearly much slower than I'd expected. That could only be because the various energies within his body were desperately resisting the erosion of reality's rules. In theory, the higher the tier, the stronger the resistance—and the slower the erosion.
Even so, since there was no way to eliminate the Water Abyss Sword's influence at its root, he couldn't delay the outcome for long. In the end, he still wouldn't escape death. The only thing he could do was struggle futilely in front of me.