Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation

"Ahhhhh!"

A scream suddenly came from behind me. I looked back and saw that Camille, who was chasing right behind me, had crashed head-first into the wall of a nearby house. She was stuck in there for quite a while.

"Who ambushed me?!"

Her angry roar came out from the pile of rubble. This time I saw it - two flashes of white light shot into the rubble, followed by a long wail from the succubus.

"Who was that....."

Selene had seen it too. She looked in the direction the lights had come from and noticed two figures standing behind the roof of the house to the left.

One of the figures looked familiar to me. They waved at us and pointed at the base of the nearest tall, slender tower, then jumped off the roof and disappeared instantly.

"I guess they want us to go there to find them?" Selene said to me.

"Yeah."

I nodded. I looked back at Camille - she didn't seem to be seriously injured but was probably stuck in the rubble for now.

I quickly brought Selene over the rooftops to another small alley, taking a few more turns before finally losing our pursuer.

"Hide your wings quickly! Otherwise we'll easily be found again."

As soon as we landed, Selene reminded me. So we had to walk the rest of the way to the tower the figure had pointed to.

"Who was that figure on the roof?" I asked Selene softly as we walked.

When we first entered the city, we were hoping to find a lone monster. But now, I desperately hoped we wouldn't run into any more monsters.

"Looked a bit like Adrian."

Selene wasn't sure either, but she seemed to notice something familiar from the figure's actions and skills.

"Adrian? How could he possibly be here?" I thought I had misheard. After all, Selene and I had crossed over to this place. And wasn't Adrian with Brennan on the front lines? There's no way he could be here!

"Are you sure you didn't get it wrong?"

"I think I might have gotten it wrong too." Even Selene herself couldn't believe what she sensed.

"But the way he shot the arrow, and the power behind it, it really looked like him..."

"You could tell it was an arrow?"

I was shocked and turned around. I didn't even know those flashes of light were arrows!

"Yeah, maybe you were too focused on the succubus to notice."

Selene seemed very certain in her reply to me.

"I realized after the first attack. That kind of light was clearly an arrow infused with light magic - it's Adrian's go-to move."

If that's the case, then it really might be Adrian after all. I immediately recalled the sense of familiarity I felt after seeing the figure.

"Oh well, no point guessing. We'll find out when we get there."

I really couldn't figure out how Adrian could possibly have come to this place. Could he have also crossed over somehow? That would be too absurd!

With the huge tower as our guide, there was no way we would get lost even with the maze of alleyways. After madly sprinting down the streets for about half an hour, we finally arrived at the base of the tower without catching sight of a single monster along the way.

There was a huge circular plaza here with the tower base at the center. No other buildings or facilities could be seen. Not a soul was around the plaza. Selene and I stood dumbly at the edge, not knowing what to do next.

"There!"

I suddenly caught sight of a figure at the entrance of another alley to our left, waving at us. Without hesitation, I brought Selene straight towards them.

"Adrian!"

As soon as we turned the corner, I saw the figure's face clearly - it really was him!

"It's really you two? Feliciana and Selene!"

Seeing us after we removed our hoods, Adrian was also greatly shocked.

In this place filled with monsters, meeting a familiar face felt incredible. Selene and I were so emotional we nearly cried.

"Shhh! Keep it down."

He gestured for us to stay quiet, then led us down the alley.

"How are you in this place?" Selene asked the question we desperately wanted to know.

"I'm actually wondering the same thing, meeting you two here is so bizarre."

Adrian walked ahead of us and replied softly.

"What is this place anyway?" I couldn't hold back anymore and threw out another question. I felt like there were so many things we needed him to explain, and I didn't even know which one to ask first.

"Let's talk more when we get to where my companions are hiding." Adrian seemed to also have many questions for us, but he had more patience to wait.

"Companions?" I picked up on his keyword.

"You're not alone?"

"That's right, there's a small team of us in this city." His reply delighted Selene and I. To have so many reinforcements on our side greatly lifted our sense of security.

"So Brennan's here too?" I immediately thought of the redhead who had joined the army with him.

"No, Brennan's not here. He didn't come to this place with us."

To my disappointment, Adrian shook his head in denial.

"I see." I was a little letdown, thinking I would get to meet another familiar face.

"We're here."

Adrian brought us in and out of intersections until he finally stopped in front of a row of houses near the city wall.

"Where?"

Selene and I looked at each other in confusion. We didn't see anyone on this street.

"Just a moment."

Adrian said. He walked up to the second door from the intersection and stood still.

He then lightly knocked on the door three times, paused for a second, then knocked once more.

The door was gently opened from the inside. Adrian gestured for us to go over, then walked in first himself.

Just as I stepped through the door frame and peeked inside...

"Hurry in!"

I felt someone grab Selene and me and yank us in. The door behind us closed up again swiftly.

"Which one of them is the angel you mentioned?"

As soon as we entered the house, I realized we were surrounded by several people - one, two, three, four...five including Adrian.

There were two girls and two boys, all looking quite young. Only one of the boys, who was dressed like a swordsman, appeared slightly more mature.

The question came from one of the girls about Selene's age. She was also dressed like a mage and looked rather cute, holding a magic wand in her hand. She didn't seem to be from the Church though.

"Should be her." The other girl dressed in tight-fitting clothes replied, pointing at me. She was the one who had pulled Selene and me inside just now. Since she could recognize me as an angel at first glance, she was likely the other figure on the rooftop earlier.

"Huh? But she doesn't have any wings?" The mage girl curiously circled around me, as if trying to find my wings.

"I put them away." My scalp tingled a little as I realized almost every pair of eyes in the room was staring at me intently.

"You can put away your wings?" Hearing this, everyone immediately started murmuring to each other, seemingly unaware that was possible.

"She's injured!" The other boy carrying a shield, who also had a sword at his waist like me, noticed the wound on my right shoulder.

I looked down and saw that the whip had slashed through both my cloak and the clothes underneath, exposing the skin beneath.

Although Selene had healed me earlier, the injury wasn't fully recovered yet. It still hurt, but at least the bleeding had stopped and the sensation had returned. My shoulder could even move a bit.

"I didn't notice you were hurt!"

Seeing this, Adrian hurriedly pulled me to a table in the room and had me sit down. I took off my cloak while Selene remembered to heal me again.

"Let Eleanora do it, she's a water mage."

The girl in the tight clothes suggested. Hearing this, the mage girl immediately came over with wand in hand, softly chanting a spell. Soon, blue light glowed from the wand. I felt a surge of water elemental power gather within it - the magic looked much more advanced than Selene's healing spell.

As expected, under the blue glow, I saw the wound on my shoulder visibly healing at a rapid pace. Within just over ten seconds, it was completely healed without a trace.

"That's high level water healing magic!"

Standing beside me and witnessing everything, Selene couldn't help but sigh enviously.

"You should change into a new top too."

After completing the treatment, Eleanora smiled slightly at Selene in agreement. She then somehow managed to produce a piece of clothing out of thin air and handed it to me.

So they were all rich people with storage rings...

"Thank you..."

As I received the clothing, I suddenly felt extremely moved. Being called 'Chicken Angel' everyday by that damn Selene, it was nice to finally have someone address me as Lady Angel.

"Tch, no character."

Seeing my reaction, Selene scoffed disdainfully next to me.

What terrible timing! Can't you let me have some face?

“Is there anywhere I can change into this?” With everyone’s eyes focused intently on me, I certainly didn’t dare change openly. But since no one spoke up, I had to take the initiative to ask.

“There’s a small room over there, you can go inside...” The swordsman finally spoke up, pointing to a door in the corner of the room we were in.

“You’re Alfreed? The Kingdom’s 5th Legion’s chief swordsman!”

It was only now that Selene noticed the swordsman. She suddenly became extremely excited.

“Wow! You’re my idol!”

What is going on here? Still fangirling at a time like this?

What happened to your noble grace? Isn't Nicola still your number one?

I shot her a nasty glare. Seeing Selene's starry gaze and shrieks of delight at that Alfreed or whatever his name was, it looked like she was about to throw herself at him. Poor guy was so embarrassed he kept dodging away.

Husband-hopper!

"Quiet down!"

Seeing this, the others quickly stopped her before she did anything more outrageous. The two girls pulled Selene back so she wouldn't cause any more trouble.

I sneaked a grin and got up to head into the little room to change.