Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation

"Huh? What are you two talking about?"

A soft voice suddenly interrupted our argument. It sounded startled.

Feliciana and Nicola jumped in surprise and turned around. It was Selene looking at us in confusion.

"Were you speaking in the angelic language just now? I couldn't understand any of it."

Because Feliciana and Nicola had been speaking in our native language, it was normal that Selene couldn't understand us.

"Oh...yes." Nicola quickly replied seriously in the language of this world. "That's the angelic language that we angels use among ourselves."

"Yes, yes!" I also quickly nodded with an awkward smile. I had to admire her skills at deceiving girls.

"But it sounded like you were arguing?" Although she couldn't understand the words, Selene could still sense the earlier atmosphere was off. "Yet you two were fine before, even sleeping together last night..."

Hearing that, I glared angrily at Nicola. She had forgotten to close the door last night! Seeing her similarly embarrassed expression, like having a sore spot exposed publicly, I knew she felt just as mortified.

"No, we weren't arguing," Nicola quickly denied. "Feliciana and I were just practicing conversing in the angelic tongue. Right, Feliciana?"

As she said that, Nicola nudged me lightly from behind.

"Ah yes, that's right!" I quickly agreed. "Nicola said it can help stimulate my memory recovery better."

I really hated how she kept poking at sore spots...

Seeing our exchange, Selene didn't seem suspicious anymore. She told us to hurry downstairs for breakfast so we could set off early.

"Don't let the others notice anything off later," I whispered to Nicola as Selene walked away. "And don't touch me again!"

"But you seemed to be enjoying it very much when I was touching you earlier," Nicola protested, looking very unfairly treated.

I was mortified that she had noticed my lack of restraint back then.

"Fine, from now on, hands off each other completely," I declared angrily. It was her fault for provoking me first anyway. I gathered my things and left the room.

"Um..." Nicola didn't seem to know how to respond and simply followed behind me downstairs.

"Sorry, I know I said we would take turns keeping watch..." I apologized sheepishly to Vivianne and the others for having slept all the way until morning. But Arian and Brennan looked much more spirited than before, so Selene and the girls must have helped keep watch too. That made me feel even more guilty that the two young girls had to guard the door while I was being taken advantage of by a certain shameless angel upstairs.

"It's fine, really. We already said not to worry about that," Selene waved it off breezily as before. "We know you angels are photophilic by nature, being creatures of the light element, so don't force yourselves."

Hearing her explanation, I realized that was why I always felt drained at night but energized during the day without tiring. So there was an elemental reason behind it.

After a simple breakfast, we packed up to continue our journey. I took a last look back at the temporary shelter that had hosted us, whose original owners were likely long gone. From now on, it would probably fall into disuse and dilapidation.

Everyone else also seemed to share the same heavy mood, remaining mostly silent as we retraced our steps to leave. Passing by the building where we had seen the two sages yesterday, we noticed their group was also boarding a carriage to depart.

"What a coincidence..." Arian went up as usual to exchange pleasantries. I saw there were more people than just the two middle-aged sage-looking men we had met yesterday. The two didn't respond, one taking the driver's seat while the other simply stood by the roadside nodding at us.

Seeing they wouldn't be leaving immediately, we decided to go ahead, circling around the carriage to continue on our way.

"Wait!"

Suddenly a woman's voice called out from the carriage, making the two sages react. One hurriedly came over to stop us, while the other went to open the carriage door behind, waiting for the occupant to emerge.

This sudden change put all of us on guard, exchanging looks of uncertainty. Vivianne and the others, though sensing no hostility, still reacted warily. Selene in particular seemed nervous, huddling close to Nicola and grabbing the hem of her angelic armor.

I saw Nicola gently put an arm around Selene's shoulders and pat her twice, as if to say don't worry. Watching this, I couldn't help rolling my eyes. As expected of the wealthy playboy. Now he had set his sights on innocent young girls.

A woman emerged from the carriage dressed in an exotic style. She wore an all-black dress, the knee-length skirt dotted with glittering star ornaments. The top was shoulder and midriff baring, paired with trumpet sleeves for a mysterious, foreign allure. Her face was obscured by a thin headscarf veil.

As she alighted, a transparent purple orb the size of a soccer ball floated out with her, hovering by her side.

Ringed around the orb were spinning card-like papers, with several larger and smaller white dots orbiting further out like satellites. Inside, a ring circled around a north-south axis while spinning. Nested within were more rings at different angles all spinning around a small central disk etched with countless patterns.

"An astrologer," Vivianne said in surprise.

"Wonder what she wants with us," Arian murmured grimly.

The term astrologer was familiar, though I associated it more with fortune tellers. But in this world, it likely signified something different.

The astrologer approached Nicola without a word, briefly nodding in greeting while glancing at me too, before speaking softly.

"May I ask, honored angel, how you are addressed? I am Meredith, from Stellacity."

"Nicola," she replied, also confused why the astrologer had singled her out.

"Did you need something?"

"We've been finding corpses of dark creatures, nearly a hundred, scattered northeast in the forest..." Meredith continued without answering Nicola.

"Most were level four to five beasts, but some reached level six, including scorpion lions and cyclopes. Our investigation showed they were all slain by the same blade, some even cut into pieces. The wounds bore strong traces of the wind element. We determined it to be a celestial weapon..."

Hearing this, we all immediately looked to Nicola. I thought of her invincible Condensation sword, which Selene had said carried the aura of a wind elemental celestial weapon.

I hadn't paid it much attention before, but it seemed Nicola had eliminated far more beasts than I realized.

Just what was the deal with that sword...

According to Nicola herself, it was merely a weapon created through her abilities, likely similar to conjured magical items. But with the truth of her identity as Reilly exposed, this matter became much more questionable. After all, if the sword really was a so-called celestial weapon...

Most importantly, why didn't I have any awe-inspiring, badass, game-breaking abilities like that!?

We were both transmigrators, so why was there such a huge gap!? A pampered young master playboy could just whip up celestial weapons after crossing over? Did being rich also grant pay-to-win attributes, starting off with cheats!? I really didn't want to complain but...

"So you're saying you think it's on me somehow?" The cheater angel looked at Meredith blankly, as if she had no connection at all to this matter. Only we knew what a superb actor she was.

"I don't mean that," Meredith shook her head. With her face covered, her expression was unclear.

"As you passed by me earlier, I detected an anomaly in the wind element around you. Yet you are an angel, and your light essence doesn't seem very strong either, maybe four wings at most. So I merely wondered if you might know something about it?"

"I'm afraid not," Nicola visibly relaxed upon hearing the explanation but still denied knowing anything.

"Our High Tower Sages' Alliance has always been on good terms with angels, so we have no intentions on celestial weapons," Meredith continued, seemingly unconvinced. "But this celestial weapon's appearance is highly suspicious, and moreover, it bears tremendous significance relating to our purpose on this journey. So..."

"I really don't know!" Nicola impatiently cut her off, holding out her arms innocently. "See for yourself, do I look like I have a celestial weapon on me? And I don't have any storage items either."

"Well, no matter if you don't know," seeing she wouldn't get anything more from pressing the issue, Meredith changed tack and extended an invitation instead.

"If you have the chance, please do visit us in Stellacity."

She looked over at me again.

"And the other angel miss too, if you could both come, that would be even better."

Huh? Was she talking about me? I was confused about suddenly being brought up when I didn't have any celestial weapons either. But aside from Nicola and I, there didn't seem to be other angels around...