Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation

"What about that bony dragon? Did Alfreed finish it off?"

I saw the vampire die with my own eyes, so no wonder he has reverted back to his original form - a bat split in half, lying not far from me.

"Of course I helped chop it to death."

Nicola proudly pointed behind me. I looked back and indeed, there were lots of white bone fragments scattered around, dead beyond dead.

"Cheating!"

I said enviously and jealously, turning my head back in envy.

"Then how did you find this place?"

I asked curiously. This was the Dark Continent after all. I was wondering how to find a place to teleport back. If she could come here, doesn't that mean we can go back too?

"You all should change locations first before talking!"

Alfreed suddenly came over to interrupt.

"This place is not safe. Since Feliciana is fine, let's get out of here quickly."

He then asked Nicola,

"Which direction did you come from?"

"That way!"

Nicola pointed northwest. We were currently west of Val City, so the direction she came from should be northwest of Val City.

"We can talk while moving."

Adrian spoke up too. His opinion was the same as Alfreed's - this place was too unsafe.

And the direction Nicola came from likely had the new teleport location. So everyone began to withdraw quickly.

When I took off, I realized Nicola had grown another pair of wings on her back.

"You ranked up again?"

It had only been a few days. For her to become six-winged, her speed was too fast. What a difference a short separation makes.

"Many things happened while you were gone these past few days."

Nicola flew beside me. Because we still had to look out for the others walking on the ground, our speed was very slow.

"Just on the second day after you went missing, news came from the capital up north that a large army of magical beasts had suddenly approached. This time it wasn't a distant border war anymore, the whole city began mobilizing, and the Adventurers Association also temporarily stopped accepting quests..."

"I know about this!"

I nodded to indicate I understood this matter very clearly.

"It was because the teleport locator stayed in Tethys Town. The magical beast army couldn't find it, so they had no choice but to launch the attack early."

"You know?"

Everyone below looked up at me.

"Uh... I haven't told you all yet. Earlier I caught a caveman near the volcano..."

I quickly shared with everyone the intelligence I had interrogated out of Borg.

"So that's what happened. Actually the official information the capital gave us adventurers was that the dark creatures had found a way to transport large numbers of troops across the border defenses via teleportation..."

The flying Nicola next to me turned her head and said.

"That night when you didn't come home, I was very worried. Like you, I went to the Adventurers Association to ask for news. They told me you were on a mission escorting church members to Tethys Town up north..."

"Like me? You knew I went to the Adventurers Association the night before too?"

I interrupted and asked.

"Yes. The staff member told me. She said you had just spent points the previous night to find me, then in just one day it became me looking for you instead."

Nicola looked at me apologetically.

"I'm really sorry to have worried you that night."

"I know, it was tough on me!"

I humphed and turned my face away, recalling what had happened that night. I couldn't help but glance at her again.

"So you spent points too?"

"Of course I spent them. How else would I know where you went."

Nicola acted as if it was natural. She continued with the previous topic:

"Originally I thought maybe you were held up by something and couldn't return that day. But the next day, news came of magical beasts appearing near Tethys Town. I was so anxious. Afraid of not being able to handle the magical beast army alone, I joined the defense legion the capital had organized temporarily."

"Your identity wasn't exposed right?"

Hearing she had actually joined the kingdom's army, she would surely be unable to continue concealing herself.

"It couldn't be helped given the circumstances. With you missing, how could I still care so much about that."

She didn't seem to mind such things too much. I felt a little touched by this.

The rest was simple according to Nicola's account. The kingdom still valued her angelic identity very much. They quickly helped arrange for her to be sent to the front line as she wished.

After a day of fighting, the kingdom army successfully blocked the enemy outside the capital halfway. She happened to rank up during that time too.

Today, taking advantage of the major troops holding back the magical beast army, Nicola finally found a chance to fly to Tethys Town alone. But when she arrived, there wasn't a single soul around. After casually killing some low-level magical creatures wandering nearby, she suddenly noticed the mountain range in the distance had disappeared.

Having been teleported to the Dark Continent in daytime, Nicola quickly located Val City. On the way here, she happened to spot the huge bony dragon entangled in the sky with Alfreed, and managed to save me at the critical moment.

"What a winding chain of events..." Selene couldn't help sighing after hearing everything.

"I know right!" Eleanora agreed loudly. Seeing the two girls sticking close together whispering below, I felt very uncomfortable all over.

"Looks like our route is right."

Hayden was more concerned about escaping. Excitedly, he said,

"As long as we go to the place Nicola teleported to not long ago and get quietly sent back, we can successfully return to the kingdom."

"That should be right. They wouldn't possibly change locations again in such a short time."

Adrian indicated the situation seemed certain this time. Everyone's morale greatly increased, and their pace quickened by a lot.

Basically at this point, most of the mysteries had been solved.

With nothing to do on the way, everyone pondered if there were any loopholes in the information obtained.

Suddenly Selene raised a doubt.

"What do you think happened to the two high-ranking magical creatures sent from this side earlier to escort the celestial weapon? How could a level 6 snake demon and level 5 wolfman end up getting killed by level 3 humans?"

"That would be hard to guess..."

Everyone showed awkward expressions. With so little relevant information, even Adrian shook his head repeatedly, indicating he had no clue at all.

Just when I thought this would remain an unsolvable mystery, Nicola raised her hand indicating she had something to say.

"I'm also not sure if it's related, but around a week ago I did kill a snake demon..."

According to her description, at that time the villages near the Dahsinibu Valley by the Astralrealm kingdom were being harassed by low-level creatures called demonized wild boars. Hence they commissioned the Adventurers Association in the capital to issue a quest to clear out the low threats.

Because the Dahsinibu Valley was very far from the capital located deep in the mountainous areas, it was difficult to search on foot. So this quest remained untaken at the association.

When it was about to expire and be removed, Nicola who had lost an entire day gambling at the "Summerfield Entertainment" happened to arrive at the association.

Since angels could fly quickly back and forth, and there were no better quests available then, she had no choice but to take up this quest normally too lazy to do.

Upon reaching the destination, Nicola searched around the Dahsinibu Valley for nearly half a day but couldn't find the targets at all. It was almost evening, if she dawdled any longer she wouldn't make it home for dinner. Anxious, she noticed faint black smoke rising from the nearby woods. Flying over for a look, she discovered a human-bodied, snake-tailed creature and a wolfman setting up a fire to roast meat and eat.

Although they were magical creatures, generally abiding by the principle of keeping out of trouble, Nicola didn't intend to bother them. Even if discovered by the other party during her approach, she could easily retreat in midair.

But after seeing what food the two creatures were biting in their mouths, Nicola immediately changed her mind. Because those were exactly the demonized wild boars she had desperately been looking for, and only a head remained of one.

"How can this be? You roasted and finished them. What if I can't turn in the goods?"

I'm not making things up! Nicola admitted those were her original words. Anyway since it was in the wild, shamelessly she whipped out her celestial weapon.

After a brutal massacre, the snake demon was killed on the spot, while the heavily injured wolfman fled into the woods. Nicola had no intention to give chase. She only rejoiced at barely managing to snatch back the remaining wild boar head from the snake demon's mouth.

To conceal the fact that the demonized wild boar head wasn't killed by her, she didn't mention anything about what happened after returning. The association staff had suspected the thoroughly cooked state of the head for a very long time, and didn't even pay her on the spot. Only a few days later when the follow-up team heard from the local mountain quest issuer that there indeed weren't any more traces of demonized wild boars left, then they confirmed the completion of the quest.

"......"

Speaking of which, this Dahsinibu Valley was exactly where Adrian's team had teleported over from. The timing could match up too.

"Hey, Feliciana, why is everyone not saying anything?"

Noticing the silence after she finished recounting events, Nicola secretly asked me if something was off about the atmosphere.

"Don't you feel ashamed at all?"

I glanced at her speechlessly and unconsciously flew further away.

"Why should I feel ashamed?"

Nicola didn't show any hint of reflection at all. She flew closer to me instead.

"It was just killing two magical creatures! Oh right, only one creature. That should count as me making a huge contribution, don't you think so?"

"You really have thick skin! Stay away from me!"

"Don't be like that!"

......