Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation

"Are you sure she knows how to activate the device? And will really start the teleportation after we leave?" Selene asked doubtfully.

"Definitely. How big could the room in that tower be? With just the three demons, could they really hide anything from each other? Moreover, Claudia herself said that Camille is an important figure, so she would know about it even more surely."

This time, without Adrian answering, I could come up with the response myself.

"Now that the most powerful one among them, Claudia, is dead, only Camille is left. She would do nothing and would definitely go to notify their goddess Michelle. Since Claudia previously said their god was personally overseeing the battle, she's likely on the Astral Realm kingdom's side now."

Saying this, I suddenly realized a serious problem.

"But this way, we might directly face that Goddess of Flame. Are you sure we can escape from her?"

No matter how highly Adrian boasted about me before when I lost consciousness, it's basically impossible to rely on that.

"If we want to avoid the Goddess of Flame in a short time without delaying the teleportation back to the kingdom, there are still some ways."

Adrian had solutions even for such problems? I couldn't help but doubt it a little.

"Really?" We asked in unison.

"Uh... we just need to lure the Goddess of Flame to this side of the Dark Continent, while we teleport over there at the same time."

Seeing our reactions, Adrian answered helplessly.

"Just doing this much isn't difficult, but after that, things might not go so smoothly... She might catch up to us again..."

"As long as we can do it, we'll deal with her after getting back!" Selene interrupted and said impatiently. Hearing we were so close to going home, she couldn't hold back her excitement anymore.

"That's right! The kingdom's side still has armies against the demons. Even if that Goddess of Flame is powerful, she may not necessarily be a match for our troops combined."

Eleanora and Hayden also voiced their agreement. Having been here longer than us, their hometown longing was even stronger.

"Is it really okay?" I looked worriedly at Adrian beside me. The method he mentioned was quite simple after some thought, I could come up with it too. But having provoked this goddess now, it didn't seem we would be safe after returning either.

"Hopefully..." Adrian forced a bitter laugh.

"Mainly depends on how far we can escape after going back, and how long it takes for the Goddess of Flame to discover we're no longer on this side."

"It was so hard to finally find a way home, yet we still can't escape from danger." I thought carefully for a while but couldn't come up with a foolproof countermeasure, so I could only dejectedly say.

"It's alright, I'll try my best to stall them." Seeing my mood, Adrian spoke to comfort me.

"What can you do..." He was only 4th class too, even if this Goddess of Flame wasn't as horrifying as I imagined, it shouldn't be something he could withstand either, right?

"Hey! Did you guys forget about me?" Nicola, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly cut in dissatisfiedly.

"With me here, and the celestial weapon of Condensation Sword ! I'll just directly hack that damn Goddess of Flame to death."

"That's the god of all dark creatures!" I looked at Nicola speechlessly, not expecting her to be so rash and hurriedly reminded:

"You couldn't even beat Claudia. How could you possibly defeat Michelle?"

"Who said I can't beat her!" mentioned this, Nicola immediately raged and jumped.

"Didn't you see I heavily injured her at the start? I only got hit later by accident... Anyway, trust me! I will definitely protect you!"

"Huh?" For some reason, these words sounded strange to me.

"Um..." Sensing the odd atmosphere, Adrian glanced at Nicola and whispered to me:

"Am I interrupting something between you two?"

"Interrupting what?" I was completely bewildered, not knowing what he meant. Then I suddenly recalled what Selene and Vivianne had shown regarding their views on my relationship with Nicola when we bathed together. Could he be referring to that?

"Nothing happened! You got it wrong!" I hurriedly clarified:

"Nicola and I are just good friends, we don't have any special relationship."

"Really? But that night at the Elara Woodlands, I clearly saw you two..." Adrian still looked puzzled recalling what he witnessed.

Sure enough, it was another misunderstanding caused by that night. I swear I just want to bash my head in now!

With one careless wrong step, the damage spreads far and wide. Now looking back, not only Vivianne and Selene saw it, but Adrian most likely did too, so Brennan probably didn't get away from it either.

"It was just a misunderstanding! I swear!" Now I only wanted to desperately clear up this terrible mix-up of our relationship.

"That kind of thing can be misunderstood?" Having seen it with his own eyes, Adrian still didn't quite believe me. He indeed wasn't that easy to fool.

"I was tricked at that time! And I later realized I'm not interested in Nic... I mean, in girls!" I couldn't help glancing back at Nicola. After all she was still my good friend, directly saying so to her face lacked fellowship. But after changing my words halfway, I couldn't come up with another excuse in my flustered state, so I could only use this explanation.

"You have to believe me..." Seeing Adrian finally start wavering, I was about to eagerly add more fuel. But suddenly I felt my arm pulled as Nicola dragged me to the side and whispered:

"Didn't you say you wouldn't be into guys?" She looked rather gloomy, seemingly very unhappy.

"Isn't this to clear up the misunderstanding about that night? You know very well my true identity." I turned to glance at Adrian again, then at Nicola. I didn't understand why she would suddenly bring this up now.

"But you just clearly said you weren't interested in girls..." Nicola anxiously emphasized what I said earlier.

"It was just an expedient means! Not to mention, not being interested in girls doesn't mean I like guys!" I rolled my eyes. To accommodate her feelings I even willingly took the damage, really not understanding what she was thinking to be so caught up on that statement.

"Then what's your relationship with Adrian! You two are so close, being all lovely-dovey."

"What nonsense! When were we lovely-dovey?" Hearing Nicola say that, I couldn't help exploding a little. Weren't we just interacting normally? It's not easy for me to even talk to a guy like Adrian properly!

"If anything, you're the strange one. What's with you being so sensitive today?" I furrowed my brows looking at her. Recalling her series of bizarre words and actions earlier, I couldn't resist leaning in by her ear to remind:

"Just what are you doing! Don't tell me you forgot? I'm Flynn!"

"I'm... I'm sorry." Hearing me, Nicola's body stiffened as she gently released her grip on my arm and lowered her hand.

"That's better..." Seeing she finally realized it, I let out a relieved sigh and hurried back to Adrian's side to explain:

"So Nicola and I aren't in that kind of relationship. If you run into Brennan later, you must help me clear this up with him too."

"This is..." Adrian looked at me, then turned to glance at the dazed Nicola again. He heavily nodded and answered: "Alright, I will help convey the message!"

"Wonderful!" I smiled very happily. Finally I'd get the chance to wipe this stain from history clean.

"What were you two talking about just now?" Hayden had been chatting with Selene and Eleanora about returning home. Noticing Adrian's odd expression, he couldn't resist asking out loud.

"Huh?" Snapping out of it, Adrian quickly said: "Weren't we just discussing the issue with the Goddess of Flame?"

"Where's Selene? I have some matters that need her help." Hayden looked around, acting like he was searching.

"Eh?" Selene was whispering and giggling with Eleanora behind them. Hearing this, she immediately stood straight and answered seriously:

"What do you need my help with?"

How could they have so much to talk about when they just met a few days ago? I looked puzzled at the two girls already as close as sisters. Could this be the real so-called love at first sight that ballad stories describe?

Oh right, I could ask Nicola about it. Wasn't she well-versed in the ways of romance, with much experience navigating flower gardens?

But when I turned to look, I got another shock instead. At this time, Nicola seemed to have lost a lot of her color. She had an exhausted and disheartened appearance.

"What's wrong with you now?" Even after my reminder that I was Flynn, her reaction shouldn't be this huge right?

"It's nothing..." Nicola lowered her head and forced a smile at me. No matter how I looked, that smile seemed very unnatural.

"I certainly won't forget. We're brothers, so I'll cover for you."

"What the hell! Did you take the wrong pills?" I stared at her dumbfounded. Why was she suddenly saying such things? Although I couldn't find anything wrong with the words, it still felt very weird.

"Don't relax your guard yet. Don't forget we're still within surveillance range." Alfreed spoke up to remind us. Among everyone, he was likely the calmest and most collected.

"That's right. That strange imagery on the device can see all of this swamp area." Hayden immediately recalled everything they saw in the tower on the island before.

"The succubus is probably closely watching our actions right now through that device."

"It's fine. We should deliberately maintain this relaxed state to successfully catch them off guard." Adrian shook his head and advised everyone:

"But still..." Selene looked down worriedly and said:

"It's just too nauseating."

Now we had walked over half the journey. It was fine not bringing it up earlier, but looking around now, there were corpses everywhere of those demons who tried getting on the island previously, all dried up like that dark elf.

Nicola and I were alright. Not wanting to linger in this atmosphere, we could simply fly up. But the others didn't have that option. Moreover, the path ahead was getting narrower. Eventually they could only tiptoe through the bodies.