Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation(Vol 5)

Chapter 27: The Hidden Light Elf Village

We had flown to the south of the border military base. The eastern border of Ilandra Dominion runs north-south, and we were near the border line. If we flew east a bit more, we'd cross into Crestvale Republic land. But the base was covered by a shield magic, blocking all light from going in or out. On this very dark night, it was hard to see where it was if you didn't know beforehand.

"But there's only forest below. I don't see any light elf buildings or gatherings!"

We had seen light elf villages in Edenmere before. Down here was just thick bushes and trees. Cyra looked at the forest, not really believing it.

"No worries, follow me and you'll see!"

Gwendolyn didn't mind at all. She led us straight down to the ground.

Looks like there was something tricky here. This world has all kinds of elements, so you can't just use your eyes to sense things. After learning this many times, I quickly noticed the light element was much stronger where we were landing compared to the surrounding areas. Elder Gwendolyn clearly knew this already.

I have to say, when her tsundere side isn't triggered, this elder is quite reliable! At least she lives up to her elder title. Too bad she looks so young...

"There's strong illusion magic here. Should we break it?"

Looking around, my feet were on soft ground covered with leaves. But the light element feeling got even stronger. Even newbie Cyra felt something was off.

"That's right. But magic alone can't last so long. So the light elves here set up a big illusion array to keep outsiders away. Even if humans notice something strange, they can't easily get in!"

Elder Gwendolyn nodded, praising us happily. Then she did something very surprising. She gently pulled out a feather from her wings. Cyra and I couldn't help but blink hard...

Wow, that must hurt a lot!

But she didn't seem to feel any pain at all. She lightly tossed the feather above her head. The feather started fading as it left her body, glowing faintly white as it floated up.

Just as the feather was about to disappear completely, a very pale hand suddenly reached out from thin air and grabbed it tightly.

"Oh, it's Elder Gwendolyn! Long time no see! Finally decided to come visit? But why so late at night? The chief and others are already sleeping. Is there some urgent business?"

As a girl's voice rang out, we could only hear her but not see her. The space around the hand suddenly had a very strange ripple, like looking through wavy water to the bottom. An arm slowly stretched out from the space "ripple" with the hand. As she talked more, more of her body appeared. Soon her whole figure showed up and landed in front of us.

She was very short, clearly a little girl. And she looked familiar...

"Irene?"

We met Irene, a dark elf, when we first came to this world in Elara Woodlands. But because she didn't get along with Nicola, they fought and Nicola accidentally gave her a lot of light pollution. So her body started slowly changing into a light elf. When we got to the capital Norvale and finished registering as adventurers, her change was almost done. Then Selene took her to Patington Cathedral and gave her to other light elves to adopt.

Of course, I hadn't seen Irene since then. I never thought she'd come all the way to the southern forests of Ilandra Dominion to live!

"Fe...Sister Feliciana?"

She recognized me too. But after being surprised, her face suddenly changed. She quickly pulled out two daggers, looking around very carefully.

"If you're here, Nicola must be too... Is she hiding? I can't see her at all!"

Same familiar weapons, same babyish voice. Looks like Irene's grudge against Nicola was deeper than I thought. Even after becoming a light elf, she still held onto a lot of it. Too bad she could never beat Nicola, especially since that guy wasn't even here now.

"Another friend of yours? How do you have so many friends everywhere we go?!"

Seeing this, Cyra gave me a weird look and couldn't help complaining. She seemed quite interested in this somewhat neurotic light elf, probably because she was young. Since leaving Edenmere, this was our first time meeting light elves from outside. But Elder Gwendolyn didn't seem surprised at all that we knew each other. She just teased us.

"I heard Irene talk about her past experiences. She met a blue-haired angel and a gray-haired angel before coming here. I was wondering if it might be you two. What a coincidence it really is!"

"That was just an accident..."

I felt a bit helpless. She clearly left out how Nicola caused the light pollution without knowing. Though from our view it wasn't necessarily a bad thing, it did change Irene's whole life. No wonder Irene still held such a big grudge against Nicola.

"Irene has fit in very well here. Because she already had good skills, she was specially assigned to guard the village entrance at night. You can see how much the locals trust her now! Right?"

As Elder Gwendolyn spoke, she gently patted Irene's head. To be honest, she wasn't much taller than Irene, so this looked a bit funny to us. But it did calm Irene down.

After hearing us talk, Irene of course knew Nicola wasn't here. Getting praise from the angel elder seemed to improve her mood. She nodded and explained to us.

"If you want to enter the village now, should I go tell the chief to remove the illusion array?"

Then with a back flip, she quickly vanished into the dark background.

"The illusion array here combines real and fake. It's a bit hard even for us angels to break. Since they worked hard to build such a complex magic array, you shouldn't force your way in. Don't cause unnecessary damage!"

Telling us to stay put and not move around, Gwendolyn followed right behind into the illusion array. Only Cyra and I were left staring blankly.

"Since the elder said so, let's just wait a bit longer!"

Cyra had really learned her lesson now. After being beaten down by reality again and again, especially after the life-and-death crisis in Parristol, she no longer dared to carelessly touch these seemingly powerful forbidden things.

Luckily we didn't have to wait long. About five minutes later, the forest scene in front of us suddenly started twisting and flipping. Finally it completely changed into something else.

What was in front of us wasn't forest trees at all, but a low stone wall! A dark cave entrance faced us, leading who knows where.

"Come on in! You angels can just fly in with your wings! This cave is to confuse those empire people outside. With the illusion array, even if humans enter the cave, they'll still think they're in the forest outside. Actually they just go in circles in the cave and come back out the same way. They can never get into the real village!"

Irene's voice rang out above us again. We saw her standing on a tree branch by the stone wall, waving to us. Following where she pointed, we flew over the wall and quickly saw the legendary light elf village.

Like the traditional light elf villages in Edenmere, this village also had an unusually tall and thick "elf tree" in the center. Wooden houses for living were built all over the tree and below it. Only the lake surrounding the tree was missing.

So this village was hidden behind this stone wall! This area was a rare low rocky mountain in the forest. The light elves lived in the hollow space inside the mountain. There weren't many exits to the outside, and they were all tightly controlled in various ways. The cave we just saw was one of them.

But according to Irene, the local elves usually don't use those regular exits. Most of them climb trees and branches to get over the wall, like she just did. For angels, though flying in from above seems easier, if the illusion covering the whole rocky mountain wasn't removed, it would be hard to find the exact location of the village just by forcing our way in.

The light elf village was very quiet now. Most villagers were already asleep, so we three were the only ones outside.