Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation(Vol 5)

Vol 5/Chapter 50: The Space Maze

What exactly is the Cycle of Rebirth? What does it look like? Probably only Galadra herself knows for sure.

But we do know that in this world, legend says the Cycle of Rebirth is a soul-managing device made mostly of earth elements. Galadra once told us that at its core in a higher dimension, there's a system like the soup of forgetfulness that erases memories. When dead souls are sent there and have their memories wiped, they're taken back to lower dimensions to be reborn.

Of course, I don't know exactly how this system works. But our current situation is a bit special.

Adrian and I are inside a projection of the Cycle of Rebirth that drops off and collects souls! In this area, this higher-dimensional thing doesn't look very clear in our 3D world. Because of all the earth elements packed together and messed up, the whole area has become a jumbled-up space.

Basically, Sylvanvale Wood has been cut into disconnected pieces of space. The space Adrian and I are in looks normal at first, but we can only move about 10-20 meters in any direction.

Take that big rock over there. It looks fine, but it's actually on the edge of two spaces that aren't next to each other. Half is on our side, and half is who knows where. If you step across, the scenery suddenly changes and you end up in a totally different part of the forest.

"Well, this is fun. Never thought I'd get lost as an angel. What a mess!"

No matter which way we go - forward, back, left, right, or even flying up - we always get sent to some strange new area. After trying a few times with no luck, we finally gave up.

"Galadra, get out here! Tell us how to leave this crazy place!" I shouted into the air after thinking a bit. The one who tied the bell should untie it. Since she made this mess, she should come help us fix it.

"I had no choice! To stop bad guys from sneaking into the Cycle of Rebirth, I made this maze. Please understand!" As she spoke, the little girl version of Galadra slowly appeared in front of us. At least she was polite, apologizing right away.

"Didn't we already kill all those monsters? Why make things so complicated?" I rolled my eyes. What was all that hard fighting for? The client thought it wasn't safe enough and added more security.

"But we didn't get the main bad guy! I've trapped her for now. The other monsters were just small fry!" Galadra argued cheerfully, leaving me speechless. True, the biggest threat was Michelle the Fire Angel. The others were just helpers.

"Don't worry, thanks to you clearing out those monsters, things are simpler now. During this appearance, I can use more power in the real world. With you and Liana, we should be able to handle Michelle together!"

"No need! You already found better helpers! I'm just a little six-winged angel. How could I join such a high-level fight?" Hearing that made me angrier. I refused right away. Thinking about how dangerous the fight with Michelle was, I never want to do it again. We already found Reed, and this trickster secretly called Nicola too. Let them handle it!

"Didn't you upgrade to eight wings? You're not six-winged anymore." Galadra looked at my back and giggled, then reminded me proudly. "See? I was right. In a crisis, you always use water element power to find a way through!"

"What good is a useless upgrade? I thought I'd get at least ten or twenty wings!" I can't believe she brought that up. My face darkened. I had such high hopes, but it was totally useless!

"It's mainly because your soul isn't pure..." She looked at me hesitantly, then sighed and said, "Now it looks like if you can't find your Authority, you'll probably only reach about ten wings at most..."

"What? Say that again!" What did she mean, my limit is ten wings? How am I supposed to live? What if I meet Michelle or someone stronger again? And how am I supposed to find this Authority thing if I want to?

I was about to grab her neck and question her, when a sudden unexpected visitor interrupted our talk.

"Great, Feliciana, you're all here!" It was Cyra. She popped out from somewhere, waving at us. "Huh? Even Galadra's here? So do you know what's going on in this place?"

Looks like Michelle's flame slash didn't really hurt her. But it's not clear why she left Midas and met up with us here.

"Where's Reed?" Adrian quickly asked. They should have been together, but only one showed up.

"That explosion was too strong. Midas got totally wrecked and stopped working! We had to leave the cockpit. Then this weird fog suddenly came up in the forest. I turned around and Reed was gone. I couldn't do anything alone, so I just bumped around until I found you guys."

Cyra explained quickly. So she and Reed got separated in this messed-up space maze. She was lucky to run into us.

"Will Reed be okay?" I asked worriedly. Reed, still with only two wings, was more concerning than half-baked six-wing Cyra. If she had bad luck and met Michelle, even her special magic might not help.

"Don't worry, I know where she is! Reed's with your angel friends now. Looks like she won't be in danger for now." Galadra created this Cycle of Rebirth maze area, so of course she can see everything inside. She closed her eyes for a moment to sense things, then opened them and reassured me.

"Angel friends?" I didn't get it at first. After a while I realized she meant the angel army also trapped here. Mia and Sheryl got knocked down by Michelle, but they shouldn't be badly hurt. They're probably stuck in this maze like us.

"Oh no, Michelle's so fast! She's almost at the center. We have to go stop her!" But a second later, Galadra saw things weren't going well. Her face changed and she yelled. The center of the Cycle of Rebirth projection supposedly connects directly to the higher-dimensional core. If the enemy gets in there, it'll be very dangerous.

"Things are this bad and you're still chatting with us?" Adrian urged right away. Honestly, even if we knew where the enemy was, it's questionable whether just us few could really stop Michelle! But luckily Galadra then told us Nicola was also getting close to the center. Maybe it was coincidence, but we had to hurry there first.

"Follow me, I know a shortcut!" Since it was her domain, Galadra confidently led the way. She jumped right into a muddy puddle in the corner. Of course she didn't get muddy, she just disappeared.

"What are you waiting for? Come on!" I motioned to Cyra, who looked hesitant. She'd been wandering the maze alone for a while, so she probably didn't know we could do this. Everything we see around us is actually a projection of the last moment before the Cycle of Rebirth appeared. The real space has been cut into countless pieces.

Surprisingly, after jumping in the mud, we popped up from the ground in the next space! We weren't ready and almost fell on our faces.

"Damn, what kind of crazy design is this?" Cyra got up, dusting off her clothes and cursing. Then she saw Galadra waving at us next to a man-eating flower dripping some weird liquid. Her face turned green.

"It should be fine. We'll enter the next area before hitting that flower," Adrian said confidently, stepping forward first. But when we came out of the next space connection, we all found ourselves standing in a huge pile of some animal's poop.

"Are you doing this on purpose, Galadra?" I finally couldn't take it anymore. Holding my nose, I felt like I was about to explode.

"Uh, accident, totally an accident!" Galadra was surprised too. She quickly explained, trying not to laugh.

"Why not just teleport us there? You clearly have easier ways. You're definitely doing this on purpose!" Cyra didn't believe her at all and complained tearfully.