Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation(Vol 5)

Vol 5/ Chapter 93: Traitor Angels

"Are there other religions in this world?" Cyrae asked curiously.

"Of course! There are many!" Melissa, a four-winged female angel, answered warmly, unlike the cold attitude of other angel guards.

"There are at least a few human religious groups as big as the Ancient God Religion, like the Descent God Religion and the Primal Force Council. I think the king of Astralrealm Kingdom follows the Descent God Religion. Besides these, there are many small religious groups scattered around the world, like the Star Group, Jinzes Religion, True Church, Elan Church, and so on. There are too many to count!"

"True Church?"

This name reminded Cyrae of the biggest religion her mother believed in back on Earth. But she didn't pay much attention to it, thinking it was just a coincidence.

Anyway, things weren't very peaceful in the main world right now. Monsters from the Barren Lands in the north were attacking Astralrealm Kingdom, making everyone in the northern part of the continent very worrying.

The latest news said the monsters somehow got a powerful device to move through space. They could appear and disappear anywhere in the kingdom, making them very hard to defend against!

Even though Edenmere had already sent several legions to help Astralrealm Kingdom, the enemy had attacked the capital city Norvale's walls a few days ago. This made the whole kingdom's situation very dangerous.

Luckily, all this didn't have much to do with Cyrae and her team's special mission...

The team's route was mostly safe. But they saw many cruel war scenes on the ground. Sometimes they met a few flying monsters, usually around level 4 or 5.

Thankfully, these enemies weren't too hard to deal with. Cyrae's stronger teammates quickly took care of them before she even needed to help.

"Someone saw our target the night before last. This means it's probably still hiding in the forest near Atlantis. So we don't need to rush. We can prepare well outside the forest before going in !"

Joyce, the six-winged team leader, finally relaxed as they crossed the border of Lumina Sanctum and got close to their destination. He quickly started explaining their next task.

"Melissa! You're in charge of searching. Try to find exactly where the enemy is. But remember, don't go in alone. Make sure to wait for all of us! And Cyrae, take it easy. This is your first mission, so you don't need to rush to the front. Just help Melissa with fighting support."

This arrangment was clearly due to Cyrae's lack of experience. But Cyrae found it strange and couldn't help asking:

"Huh? Isn't our job to deal with traitor angels hiding in the main world? If we're slow, won't they notice us and run away?"

The full name of "Post-Event Clearing" is actually "Angel Guard Post-Event Clearing Office". This group was created to catch traitor angels who left Edenmere and hid in the main world for various reasons.

Usually, angels can sense light elements in each other. So it's very hard to track these traitors without them noticing. That's why Cyrae's worry made sense.

"Well... actually, this mission is different from what you might think. Whether we catch those traitors or not isn't the main thing anymore. The most important thing is that they dared to break the taboo, hurting others and themselves, and..."

The others' reaction seemed a bit strange. Melissa was about to tell the truth, but the team leader Joyce stopped her.

He looked at Cyrae deeply, sighed, and said:
"Forget it. This shameful thing is hard to talk about! Since we're here already, it's better to let her see for herself. Lady Elara must have a reason for letting this new angel join us. If we try to explain now, it'll take too long and might not be clear..."

Of course, this made Cyrae even more curious. But the answer wasn't far away. Without wasting time, all team members got ready and left. Soon they reached the edge of the forest where their mission was.

Looking at the whole continent, this forest was very ordinary in every way. It wasn't very big, but it was only about 10 kilometers from the outskirts of Atlantis. You can imagine that even though Atlantis wasn't a big city, there must usually be quite a few people passing by here.

But what they saw now was very unusual! The whole forest was completely silent. You couldn't hear any birds singing, let alone see the travellers who should often be passing by nearby.

"The light element feeling is so strong! Why does this place feel so much like Edenmere?"

Before even entering, Cyrae noticed something strange. She quickly reported to the team leader.

"As expected, you noticed so fast!" Joyce looked at her with approval, but also added worriedly. "Actually, if we go deeper inside, the light element will be even stronger! But for a four-winged angel to reach this level is really too much..."

"Four-winged angel? Isn't that one of the traitors we're after?"

Cyrae was surprised. Of course, she already had detailed information about the traitor angels. There were two targets, a man and a woman. The man, Peyji, had six wings. The woman, Pachira, had four wings according to the information!

But the strange thing was, whether it's four-winged, six-winged, or even eight or ten-winged angels, even the light element Elara usually gave off could never reach this level.

"That's why their careless breaking of the taboo is so scary!"

Joyce nodded and gestured to the side. Melissa, who was already prepared, immediately dived into the forest to do her scouting job.

"You need to take some protection measures too..."

Clifford, the other six-winged male team member, looked at Cyrae and cast a set of defense magic on her head.

"This is 'Light Shield'! It's not as good as the highest-level 'Light Sanctuary', but it's definitely the best among mid-level magic. It should be enough to deal with someone like Pachira!"

I need light defense magic to deal with angels?

After so many days of hard studying, Cyrae of course knew that angels could completely resist light magic. She didn't understand why her teammates did this, but she still politely said thank you.

"I found Pachira! She should be hiding in a cave by the forest lake. But I couldn't hold on anymore, so I didn't go check myself..."

Melissa came back soon, but she seemed to be in bad shape. As soon as she landed from the air, she fell to the ground, holding her head and breathing hard.

"It's okay, you did very well. Just rest here for a bit and then catch up with us!"

Joyce went to check on her. Seeing she wasn't too bad, he waved to the others and flew towards the target.

"...Are you really okay?"

Cyrae looked at Melissa, who was still lying on the ground. She had no choice but to grit her teeth and open her wings to fly into the sky with everyone else.

Mist.

At first, there was only a thin fog in the forest. But as they went deeper, the fog got thicker and thicker. It became harder and harder to see, until finally they couldn't see anything.

Luckily, these problems were nothing for angels who could fly in the sky. Just by feeling the light element, they quickly arrived at the lake cave Melissa mentioned.

"These animals are so annoying! We can never kill them all. They keep rushing out, attacking once, and then hiding back in the mist!"

Of course, there were some obstacles on the way. As soon as they landed, groups of birds and beasts came out of the mist to attack them.

But because of the high concentration of light element in the area, these animals moved quite slowly. And their opponents were angels! Clifford alone could easily defend against attacks from most of them. Joyce and Cyrae could easily handle the rest.

But at this critical moment, something unexpected happened!

There was a dull "boom" sound. Suddenly, Cyrae felt a terrible headache deep in her mind. Caught off guard, she instantly lost all ability to fight. She fell to the ground, holding her head in pain!

This looked exactly like what happened to Melissa earlier.