Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation(Vol 5)

Vol 5/Chapter 4: Undercover Spy

"Why didn't you run away?"

Surprisingly, she didn't dodge. She didn't even unfold her wings. It was like she came to give herself up. But I didn't let my guard down. I took the sword from her waist too. She just watched coldly as I did this. After a while, she said something strange:

"Your moves seem sharper than before, huh?"

"Of course. After leaving Edenmere, I went through a lot. How could I not get stronger?"

I nodded, answering casually but staying alert. This girl suddenly showing up was fishy, especially right after Lantine Oasis sky city fell. Very suspicious.

"You new angels are too much. You improve so fast, how can we old ones keep up..."

She sighed, talking nonsense. I didn't want to hear more. Maybe she was stalling for time! I pushed my sword forward a bit and cut her off:

"Tell me! Why are you here? What do you want? Don't say you betrayed Edenmere and came to see me just to learn some magic trick?"

It was Aria! The angel who joined the second Edenmere tournament with me and got third place in magic. The same traitor who kept provoking Nicola during the monster attack, making her chase all the way from the holy city to the northern barrenlands!

She went quiet when she heard me. I don't know what she was thinking. Just when I was getting impatient, she spoke again, head down:

"Actually, I'm a good person!"

"Good person? Ha, you think I'm that stupid?"

This felt familiar somehow, but I didn't believe her excuse. She seemed sorry, but that doesn't mean I'd let her go easy. I wonder what Nicola is doing in the barrenlands. She said she'd catch Aria, but now Aria's right in front of me and Nicola's not back.

"It's true! I was secretly sent by Lady Elara to spy on the conservatives. But it was so hard..."

Seeing I wasn't convinced, Aria quickly spilled more details. It made me start to take her seriously.

She said Elara had been wary of the conservatives for years. To get accurate info fast, she planted Aria, a new angel with a clean background, as a spy.

Later when Yvonne and others really did team up with monsters to rebel, Aria was ordered to infiltrate the monster side too. Other conservative angels defected with her, but Michelle didn't fully trust these traitors. So after a few days in the Dark Continent, they were sent as cannon fodder to the Barren Lands, the frontline.

Even as conservatives, these traitors didn't dare face the angel army head-on. With so few of them, they couldn't go back to Edenmere. On the way to the Barren Lands, most snuck away. Only Aria stayed, which got her some trust from the monster army.

Of course she didn't want to. She was following Elara's orders. But then Nicola suddenly came chasing her day and night. She almost died many times. She couldn't take the stress anymore. After hearing about Parristol, she finally ran away to Crescent City to ask me for help.

"Nonsense. Why come to me? Just go back to Edenmere. Elara would protect you if she knew."

I really didn't get it. She didn't seem to be lying, but there were still many doubts.

"I'm afraid she doesn't know! Lady Elara wanted me to keep spying, but Nicola was too strong. Even with intel on angel army movements, I couldn't hold on. This was my only choice. Now all angels hate us traitors. They move in groups when fighting outside. If I just show up, they might kill me."