"What's so bad about being reborn as an angel?"
Hearing Cyra say this, Elara asked in puzzlement.
"Although you described Earth life as peaceful without magical beasts causing turmoil, angel lifespans are also not short. Barring early battlefield death, angels can generally live for thousands of years. I'm already over 5,000 years old. Isn't that much better than being a human?"
Elara was already that old? I was surprised and looked her over again carefully. Although she did look slightly older than Nicola, if she were human she would only be in her 20s. This refreshed my understanding of angel longevity again.
I had to agree with her words. Although the initial transformation was inconvenient, after gradually adapting I realized an angel body was quite good. At least there were no worries about food or clothing, great strength, ability to fly, and no fear of small-time gangsters.
Undeniably, I had become somewhat decadent...
"It's not that there's anything bad, only that the True Church here is different from Earth's. Although very similar, it's not what I want."
Cyra could only state the reason for her desire to return.
"Plus, I'm homesick..."
On hearing this, not just Cyra but even Nicola was slightly moved.
"Yes, unlike other angels we have a family."
I sighed slightly and said, somewhat envious of their inseparable feelings towards family. As for myself, it would be false to say I didn't miss my parents at all, but my feelings were still more of fear. Scenes of getting slapped over minor disagreements at home were common, so ever since I moved out, I seldom went back.
"Sorry, we angels don't have parents so we don't understand that kind of familial love."
Seeing our despondent looks, Elara apologized.
"But I really can't agree to reverse the angel descent formation for you. It's not just that I don't want to, but mainly because it's fundamentally impossible."
"The angel descent formation was created by two ancestral angels thousands of years ago through immense power and eldritch principles we descendants can't comprehend. Actually, not only is reversal impossible, even slight modifications are out of the question."
As she spoke, she glanced meaningfully at Cyra.
"So when someone first asked me to change her body to male, it wasn't that I was unwilling, but that the ritual fundamentally only allows female angels. There has never been any such thing as a male angel."
"I just wasn't used to it at first..."
Cyra explained with a red face, looking unexpectedly cute.
"Then what about just opening a gateway to our world?"
Nicola thought of a compromise. She just wanted to take a look and no longer harboured hopes of becoming human again.
"Unfortunately that won't work either."
Elara shook her head again.
"Putting aside that we don't even know the location of your world, even if we did, spatial magic isn't an angel specialty. Opening a gateway to another world purely through light magic is fundamentally impossible."
"Then what about Edenmere?"
I recalled Serena mentioning this landmass had split off from the main world, surely that counted as high-level spatial magic? Unless...
"Edenmere is also a creation of the ancestral angels."
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Her answer was just as I expected. The angels' ancestors were indeed formidable to have such mastery.
"So we really can't ever go back..."
On hearing this, Nicola heaved a sigh. Although she had guessed this might be the outcome earlier, facing the fact still left her unwilling.
"I'm truly very sorry. I hope you'll stay willingly."
Seeing the situation, Elara understood consolations were useless and could only state her position.
"The summoning happens at most once every few decades and we barely gathered enough resources this time, only to suffer such devastating losses. We originally could have birthed nearly a hundred angels, but now only 4 remain..."
"So your losses this time were huge."
Cyra couldn't help but say. Not just Nicola and I, she could also see that the blow to the already scarce angels was indeed heavy, not to mention angels who had died protecting the ritual and us.
"But many people from our side died too!"
I reminded her not to forget this. Letting the other students slide, I still couldn't get over Quinn's death.
"Why must such an important ritual be conducted in the outside world? If kept within Edenmere, surely those magical beasts couldn't have invaded."
"It's not as if I don't understand your point. If there was any other way we wouldn't have taken such risks..."
Elara could only reply wryly to my accusations.
"Because Edenmere is essentially another plane, it cannot form links with the cycle of reincarnation. The ritual must be enacted in the main world to succeed."
"As for your dead friends, I can only offer deep sympathies and apologies. In truth everyone was a victim and no one wanted this outcome..."
As she spoke, her tone suddenly shifted.
"However, since they died only after coming to this world, their souls should have already entered the cycle of reincarnation. So don't be overly sad. You might meet them again one day, just in reborn forms."
Was that supposed to console us? Hearing her words, I could only say that the angels' understanding of death was indeed different due to the existence of reincarnation here.
"Since the cycle of reincarnation plays such a vital role in the summoning ritual, could errors occur in it? Or perhaps the ritual obtained souls before linking to our world, causing two reincarnating souls to inhabit a single angel body?"
Seeing the topic shift to reincarnation, Nicola suddenly voiced her thoughts.
Hearing her, I immediately realized she was likely asking about when I transformed into the blue-winged angel.
"Two souls sharing one body? The summoning has occurred countless times over thousands of years yet I've never heard of such a situation. However given the unique circumstances I also can't outright deny it..."
On hearing Nicola's words, Elara pondered briefly before asking back.
"Have you noticed any issues with your body then?"
"Not issues per se..."
Nicola suddenly hesitated, unsure of how to explain properly.
In truth neither of us had overtly displayed a second soul persona, at least I had moved by myself while blacked out and Liana had never manifested through Nicola as far as we knew, if not for Michelle's mention we wouldn't even have realized.
"Let me put it this way. Are you familiar with blue-winged angels?"
I switched approach and asked directly.
"Blue wings?"
Seeing her momentary confusion, Nicola simply described my blue-winged form again in brief.
"How can that be! A fire god I could still accept, but you're unambiguously an angel. How could your wings possibly not be white?"
On hearing the full account Elara was flabbergasted, looking at us in disbelief.
"Are you two teasing me? Or did you see it wrongly? Angel wings absorb light essence from the outside world and can be considered an extension of our bodies. More wings represents greater light element capacity and absorption speed, hence greater power."
"It's precisely because of this that wings, unlike angel bodies themselves, don't possess energy immunity. And now you're telling me they turned blue, representing the water element? I've never heard of such a thing these thousands of years."
"Blue represents the water element?"
I pricked up my ears at this. Although I had guessed something like that previously it was never confirmed. Moreover Eleanora had indeed mentioned sensing water elemental energy from my blue-winged form back then.
"Yes, every kind of elemental energy manifests a different color in reality, something you should have noticed during everyday spellcasting."
Elara nodded and explained patiently.
"Red fire, blue water, grey wind, brown earth, white light, and black darkness. These are basics everyone knows. So from your wings changing blue, we can deduce they were absorbing water elements from outside at that time. In all these years none of our angels have shown such an ability."
"Can the absorption not be controlled voluntarily? I heard human mages can release spells of different elements right?"
Cyra suddenly cut in to ask. Having barely gone to the outside world she knew nothing about human magic.
"That depends on elemental affinity. Only by attaining a certain degree of affinity with an element can its energy be sensed and absorbed for personal use."
Elara elucidated further.
"Average humans possess minor affinity for multiple elements concurrently, hence the phenomenon of individuals storing different elemental energies is possible. We angels as pure light elemental beings conversely cannot harbor any other element within our bodies, but our wings can directly absorb light essence and the magic thus unleashed far surpasses any human mage in power or level."
"So it's a specialist vs jack-of-all trades difference, huh."
Hearing the explanation Cyra easily understood.
"These are basics you should know from regular angel lessons. Looks like someone hasn't been paying attention in class..."
Elara gave Cyra a meaningful glance. Like a mouse spotted by a cat, Cyra jolted in shock.
"I just temporarily forgot..."
Cyra defended weakly, resembling nothing more than a high school student being questioned by the discipline mistress.