Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation (Volume 6)

Vol 6/Chapter 20 - Following Behind

I must say, Nicola's story from the parallel world was really interesting, with many mysteries still unsolved. She probably came to talk to me late at night to discuss these things.

"Actually, I'm not very sure either!" she said.

In the Ancient God Religion believers' minds, "Spring" was without doubt the highest-level god in Eldoria Continent since the beginning of time. But in that world, the male Earth Angel Galadra had different thoughts.

"'Spring' wasn't born in Eldoria Continent, and doesn't even belong to this world! They all came from high-dimensional spiritual beings deep in the universe, very far away. Many similar demons live there, but only a very small number can come down to our world!"

When Nicola told me these words from Galadra, it suddenly reminded me of something I'd been thinking about for a long time - since Eldoria Continent had sun and stars just like Earth, with day and night cycles, it might actually be on a planet. As for what other worlds existed beyond this planet, and whether aliens might visit - that was still unknown.

So could "Spring" actually be aliens? That seemed to be what the male Galadra meant. But their form was said to be very different from humans, even existing in different dimensions. This reminded me of another special type of being I knew well - the "Holy Ones".

Both lived in higher dimensions and had very strong powers. You couldn't deny that "Spring" and "Holy Ones" were connected in many ways, but they acted completely opposite! But what exactly caused this difference?

"Whatever, let's not talk about this for now!"

Luckily, in my world there was no "Spring", and I'd never even heard of "Ancient God Religion", so there probably wasn't any similar risk.

"What happened between you and the Adrian from that other world?"

I had a reason for asking Nicola this. She had talked a lot about how she changed her view of the parallel world Adrian earlier, giving many details, but barely mentioned him later. From my experience, this usually meant something fishy was going on.

"What do you mean what happened? Oh..."

Nicola looked up at me strangely, then suddenly seemed to understand what I meant. She clarified with a dismissive attitude: "You're thinking too much. I'm not like you! He was just a new subordinate, that's all. Even though I ended up helping him big time, that doesn't mean I had any special feelings. We were just working together! What, are you jealous?"

"How could that be possible!"

Speaking of jealousy, I'd seen way too many similar situations at the H-country base when the transport portal broke. I'd become immune to it. But just now, I clearly saw Nicola's cheeks turn visibly redder, which made me doubt what she said. I couldn't help asking again: "Is that really how you feel?"

"What's wrong with you?!"

Nicola got very impatient when she heard this. She slammed the table and snapped back: "Didn't you see I came back alone? If it was you, you probably would've cried and insisted on going back to be lovey-dovey with Adrian! Don't forget I still have some old scores to settle with the Adrian in this world. My power isn't like before - when I crush him under my feet later, don't you cry!"

Finally, Nicola's arrogant, domineering self was back! She stood up looking very unhappy and left these words behind, walking out without looking back. She kept muttering that coming to talk to me was a complete mistake.

"What's all this about!"

Watching her leave, I had to admit her explanation made some sense, but I was just guessing - did she need to get so worked up? Besides, didn't she say at the start that she'd come to terms with my relationship with Adrian?

I never expected our talk would end so badly. I didn't try to stop her, and could only turn around with a bitter smile. But suddenly I noticed something wasn't right - at this hour, someone else had appeared in my room uninvited.

This person wasn't a stranger to me at all - it was my old acquaintance from Earth - Number 18 Cyra!

"No way? How did you come here too?"

Cyra always appeared and disappeared mysteriously. I hadn't seen her since fighting with Camille. Though I was used to how she showed up by now, the key problem was - this wasn't Earth!

When the transport portal returned to normal, all the parallel world visitors were sent back to their own worlds.

Now seeing Cyra had also come to Eldoria Continent through the transport portal, my first thought was to take out the "Galadra's Eye" that I hadn't returned yet, and send her back.

"Perfect timing, come touch this crystal ball, you should be able to get home!"

"Galadra's Eye" needed to be touched to determine the user's world location. I moved closer to Cyra, trying to get her to reach out and touch the ball's surface. But just as her hand was about to touch it, she suddenly spoke for the first time:

"Galadra's power..."

As soon as she said this, the perfectly fine crystal ball vanished from my palm like it shouldn't exist in this world.

This wasn't Galadra taking back her celestial weapon from far away. As someone who had reached ten wings, I could clearly feel what was wrong - this was reality erasure, the crystal ball's existence had been directly erased from reality!

"Impossible!"

Controlling reality had always been Water Angel's special ability. Even with my current power, I couldn't erase things so smoothly. If Number 14 Feliciana had done this it wouldn't be surprising, but the person in front of me was clearly Cyra! How could she do this?

More accurately, I should ask how she got Water Angel's power! I clearly remembered that Number 18 Cyra always appeared and disappeared instantly with unusual water element traces in the environment, almost exactly like Number 14 Feliciana's movement pattern.

But there were also clear differences between them. Though Number 14 Feliciana wasn't a real person, at least her mind was normal and she talked like regular people. Number 18 Cyra's mental state had always seemed confused, with fuzzy awareness.

To be blunt, I'd always suspected something had hit her head before - she seemed completely stupid! So naturally, even when I asked her questions, I usually got no response.

"Home... this is home!"

Sure enough, this time was no different. Facing my questions, Number 18 Cyra didn't explain anything, but said with a confused face that she was already home. Then she disappeared silently right after we met.

"What in the world is going on!"

This room was supposed to be my private space, but everyone just came and went as they pleased. Couldn't they at least ask me first, or give some warning?

I stood there feeling mentally exhausted, then fell face-first onto my pillow. Thinking about heading to the capital tomorrow, I didn't want to do anything and just fell into a dizzy sleep.

That same deep night, in some far unknown corner of Eldoria Continent, several human figures suddenly appeared from thin air. They wore different outfits, most carrying weapons - swords, bows, guns, one even had what looked like a rocket launcher on his shoulder.

Their sudden appearance didn't catch anyone's attention, and nobody knew about it since the area was basically empty of human dwellings. They all looked like they'd transported here on purpose, then quickly and skillfully spread out to check their surroundings.

Two people stayed behind. In front of them was a deep cliff. A muscular bald young man walked to the cliff's edge, took a deep breath of fresh air, then asked his companion who was buried in a book:

"This should be the world from the book <Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation>, right? Can you assess the current situation?"