Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation

"Oh?" Wayne Peng's eyes lit up when he heard me mumbling to myself. He leaned in and asked eagerly, "Did you figure something out?"

"No, nothing..." In just a few seconds, I understood a lot of things I hadn't before. But there's not much real proof about the "Holy Ones". And I don't know that much anyway. If I told Wayne Peng the truth, he probably wouldn't believe me.

So it's better to say nothing! But I know the H-country military is trying hard to find Number 14 Feliciana. They won't find anything. So I tried to explain to Wayne Peng:

"Actually, Number 14 Feliciana is way stronger than me. She can even go back to her own world by herself. She only stayed here to help us. So don't worry too much about her staying in this world. Maybe she finished her job and left already. If she's not even in this world, you won't find her no matter how hard you look!"

"But how she and Number 14 Nicola got here is so strange. I can't explain this to my boss!" Wayne Peng said, looking very stressed. World 14 helped a lot with the space portal problem. Like how Nicola from World 14 took many visitors from other worlds away early. Wayne Peng couldn't deny that, but he was still very worried. "Now even the central government knows about this. They ordered us to check all the security footage of visitors from parallel worlds coming in. We can't let any 'illegal immigrants' slip by, including the rumors about World 18."

"World 18? You mean that rumor where three shadows were seen entering the space portal, but only two humans arrived, and then someone at the base said they saw Cyra from World 18?" Adrian understood right away. This rumor was all over the base. The human visitors from World 18 had already left with Nicola from World 14. But later, many people, including me, had weird experiences of meeting a "mysterious Cyra"!

But sadly, no one here could explain the truth about World 18. Wayne Peng himself saw three shadows enter the space portal. So he could only guess it was somehow related to the mystery of World 14, but he couldn't be sure.

Just as we were about to leave after eating, Wayne Peng suddenly got a phone call. It sounded like it was from one of his bosses.

"Really? I'll come right away! My injury was completely healed by Feliciana... Yes, the same person. They're right here with me! I'll bring them along!"

Wayne Peng kept looking at me while he was on the phone, looking very surprised. After he hung up, he tried to calm down and explained to Adrian and me:

"Raydwin is alive again, and he's somehow here at the base! We heard he was dead before, and there wasn't even a body. But they say when they found him, he kept talking nonsense about some god-like beings called 'Holy Ones' who saved him. Then Cyra showed up and explained that you used some special magic to bring him back to life! That's amazing, you really are an angel! Not only are you not afraid of nuclear bombs, you can even bring people back to life!"

I have to say, Wayne Peng's praise at the end made me feel a bit embarrassed. Actually, I can't bring people back to life. If those "Holy Ones" heard that I took credit for their work, would they strike me with lightning?

But then again, for Earth people, bringing someone back from the dead is a big deal! Adrian and I looked at each other. We knew it was time for me to step up again. Wayne Peng had clearly been told by General Lee to bring us to deal with Raydwin coming back to life.

But we weren't going to the research lab like I thought. We were going to the base's office building. They said Raydwin was there now.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious about the body the "Holy Ones" made for Raydwin out of thin air. Who knows if they gave him any special powers?

On the way there, I wondered meanly if Raydwin had run out and been recognized quickly, then taken to the research lab to be studied.

So had they finished studying him already? Or did they not have time?

But strangely, there weren't many people around the office building today. We followed Wayne Peng to the lobby. When we opened the door - can you believe it? All the officials from the base were there. Even some visitors from other worlds, including Cyra and Reed from our world, were all gathered inside.

"Huh? What's going on here?"

I was totally confused. Weren't we supposed to see Raydwin first? It felt like we walked into a party. There were even balloons around.

Suddenly, there was loud clapping. A banner opened up above, saying "Warmly Congratulating Lady Angel Feliciana on Her Recovery!"

"What does this mean?"

This sudden change scared me. I asked Wayne Peng next to me.

"Don't forget, you're the hero who saved all of Shine Metropolitan!"

Wayne Peng explained, not surprised at all. It seemed they had planned this behind my back. Only then did I realize this was the first time I'd appeared in public since waking up.

"If you made such a big sacrifice, of course you deserve a reward!"

Even Adrian gave me a little push from behind. Soon, a girl came up and gave me a bunch of flowers. I was so shocked my scalp was tingling. Finally the clapping stopped.

"Okay, okay, that's enough everyone. Can't you see she's about to faint? Let's skip the speech!"

These simple celebration ceremonies in the military are usually just for show. Luckily, General Lee saw my face. He quickly waved his hand to tell everyone to leave. The space around me finally cleared out. Of course, some people still couldn't resist peeking from outside.

"This wasn't your stupid idea, was it?"

I glared at Cyra. I'd never been through anything so embarrassing in my life! At the same time, I let out a long sigh of relief. The only people left were friends from my world, General Lee, Wayne Peng, and an H-country official I didn't know.

"How could it be! Didn't we already meet after you woke up?"

Cyra quickly explained, sounding very wronged.

"I told you before that you'd be fine. At first they thought you might be dead!"

Reed was probably the calmest person there. She walked over with no expression and gave me a light hug, whispering a complaint.

"I'm so sorry. Feliciana, you did such a great job on this mission. We wanted to surprise you, so we planned this. But we didn't know you wouldn't like it. We won't make this mistake again!"

Finally, it was the H-country official's turn to come apologize to me very sincerely. He introduced himself: "I was sent here by the highest command to check and summarize the mission. I heard angels usually live very long lives, so you can call me Winslow!"

This Mr. Winslow was clearly sent from the H-country central government. His rank must be as high as General Lee's! And it looked like he knew I could bring people back to life.

"Weren't we supposed to talk about Raydwin?"

I sighed and brought the topic back to the original purpose. I didn't see Raydwin in the crowd earlier, which means he's probably still being controlled.

"We've already checked Raydwin's body. We didn't find any problems. He's almost exactly the same as before the mission! Now he's in another place being questioned further. If you want to see him, we can go right away! Of course, we also want to talk to you privately in General Lee's office about some things related to our cooperation!"

Mr. Winslow's attitude was incredibly friendly. After all, they needed my help.

You know, I just showed them how I could hit a nuclear bomb with my body and "bring someone back to life" out of nowhere. If that didn't shock Earth people, nothing would!

"Let me be clear, don't ask me to bring anyone else back to life! Only high-level angels can use this magic. It can only be used once a year, and there are many limits. Plus, this world doesn't have much magic energy. This time was special. It can't happen a second time!"

I could guess what they were thinking. To prevent trouble, I quickly made up an excuse.

"Ah... well..."

When he heard what I said, Mr. Winslow's plans were clearly ruined.

Luckily, General Lee jumped in. He smiled awkwardly and smoothed things over: "That's fine! Seeing an angel's miracle once in a lifetime is enough!"

Actually, at first I was just going to make up some cooldown time for the skill to deal with it. But I was surprised they didn't say anything like "Let's try again in a year". I suddenly realized that since the space portal was fixed and the monsters' effects were gone, some things that should have happened long ago might finally be starting to show up.