"Heh heh! This is quite a rare phenomenon!"

After hearing my description, Judith adjusted her glasses, looking very interested, and offered her own insight.

"Based on my years of experience, the root cause of the body swapping issue most likely lies with the Pope. But the exact reason still needs further examination to determine."

"Why don't you suggest to him that you two..."

This was a rare breakthrough! Although I knew there might be some secret with the Pope, I had been at a loss on how to approach it. As an expert, Judith immediately pinpointed the crux of the issue with just a few words.

"No way! I refuse to examine that undead tranny's body. Besides, I'm not very skilled with light elements anyway!"

But Judith flatly rejected my suggestion in a very rude manner. With her pointing it out, I suddenly recalled their relationship would indeed make implementation difficult. Come to think of it, ever since leaving the cave, she and Cysper hadn't been on very good terms, never exchanging another word.

In my view, Cysper just happened to look like the Saint Angel - he didn't seem too closely connected otherwise. Was that really reason enough for such resentment?

"It's normal you don't understand. The True Church Pope's origins have always been unclear. There are rumors in the Sage Council that he may be related to the ancient Light God. This time, discovering he shares the same appearance as the Saint Angel Cyra is practically an earth-shattering revelation!"

Judith revealed mysteriously. In fact, I was already vaguely aware of most of this - that's precisely why I had made a detour to the Holy Capital in the first place! But after finding that Cysper didn't seem to pose much threat, I had decided to deepen ties with him.

"So why don't you hurry up and study that guy?"

I seized the opportunity to urge her. Putting everything else aside, Cyra and the Pope's ambiguous relationship couldn't be allowed to drag on indefinitely - leaving it unresolved would inevitably lead to big problems.

"No interest! And the Pope may not agree to it either!"

Judith remained adamantly refusing, then looked at me with an amused expression.

"Besides, compared to that ageless geezer...heh heh, I'm more interested in why your wings turned blue!"

"Heh! Angel lifespans are pretty long too, aren't they?"

I chuckled wryly in response, involuntarily shuddering as I suddenly felt a sense of foreboding.

"And didn't I already tell you, I suspect it has to do with the Water Angel Gisphrael? Isn't that the whole reason we're heading to Crescent City?"

"Records left by the Water Angel are extremely rare. Before this, we didn't even know her name. Even if we confirm you're her reincarnation, the research value of an elemental angel is tremendously high! Why don't I just pluck a few of those blue feathers for a look..."

"No way!"

I abruptly refused before she could finish. That would hurt so much! Well, well, I ended up being the lab rat after all, huh?

But Judith persisted relentlessly. When plucking feathers didn't work, she changed her demand to wanting to closely observe my blue wing form.

This woman could really be a nag. Pestered to the point of exasperation, I had no choice but to reluctantly agree.

"Observing is fine, but you can't secretly try anything sneaky!"

In an instant, six snow-white wings appeared behind me, blinding under the morning sun.

"Why are they still white?"

Since it wasn't the wings she wanted to see, Judith immediately looked very disappointed.

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"It's easy to turn them blue, this is just the basic form..."

I wasn't surprised. I then focused my mind to manipulate all the water elements in the surrounding air, drawing them into my body. Unlike the passive way of attracting water elements to convert into magic power during meditation, this was an active control method. Ever since the battle with the Light God, my mental strength seemed to have taken a qualitative leap - I could now effortlessly manipulate larger amounts of external water elements simultaneously.

Once the magic power contained in the water elements within my body surpassed that of the light elements, the wings behind me immediately began changing color. The blue hue rapidly spread from the roots to the tips as the water elements replaced light as the wings' preferred source of absorbed energy from the environment. The absorption speed and capacity even far exceeded that of the light element absorption of the white feathers. Soon, the excess water element magic power brimmed over, manifesting on my body's surface.

This was the transformation method I had spent several hours painstakingly figuring out last night...well, it did feel a bit strange somehow!

"Your strength should already be beyond the Sixth Tier now, right?"

The commotion from the wings changing color naturally attracted the attention of the group chatting on the other side. Seeing this, Cyra suddenly made a sour remark while glaring at Brennan, who was holding the little phoenix, causing an awkward moment for the young couple.

To be fair, Cyra was still stuck at two wings despite some strength growth, but the progress was excruciatingly slow. Who knew when she would reach four wings, let alone attain that highly coveted "powerful" pet that had been snatched from her grasp at the last moment...

"Not necessarily."

I tried my best to console her.

"Even with my wings turning blue, it doesn't seem to have much practical use."

This wasn't a lie - it was my genuine experience tinged with a hint of disappointment. I hadn't really mastered any earth-shattering abilities. The main benefit was the Water Abyss Sword.

But that sword was flawed in its own ways. It couldn't cut people, but its dehydration effect was top-notch! I found that after doing laundry, I could use it to rapidly dry the clothes instead of air drying, which was much more convenient. I could also dehydrate and preserve perishable foods for longer storage...

Wait, weren't those just household skills? It was almost enough to make me cry.

Oh well, maybe I'll just open a laundromat someday to save time and effort.

"Speaking of this wings changing color phenomenon..."

It seemed Cysper had recalled something as he suddenly asked me,

"I remember some time ago there was a big hubbub in the Astralrealm Kingdom about that 'Flame God' - there were rumors that her true identity was actually a Twelve-Winged Angel, but she drew a lot of controversy because of her red wings. The whole thing never got definitively concluded. Could it be a similar situation to yours?"

"Michelle?"

Of course I could never forget that girl - we were practically archenemies at this point. As for the mysteries surrounding Michelle's origins, I had mostly stopped investigating after learning she was actually the Fire Angel. But that didn't mean all the questions around her had been fully answered, like the strange impressions she gave off without her wings out.

More than once I had mistaken Michelle for an angel, including the very first time I saw her, as well as in Edenmere when Noma thought she was Cyra amidst the crowd before she suddenly attacked indiscriminately. I had distinctly sensed an intense light element aura from her on those occasions.

It was an extremely bizarre phenomenon. If Michelle was the Fire Angel, why did she emanate a light element aura when her wings were retracted, appearing no different from an ordinary angel? However, after consciously experiencing the process of my wings changing color, I suddenly had an inkling - could it be that she was actually an angel too?

But this conclusion ran into another contradiction - elemental angels existed long before the angel race emerged. The Fire Angel Michelle had even participated in the "Xuthus Project" to unite against Beluto. Meanwhile, the angel race was created by Liana and Galadra after the Light God's destruction in order to restore elemental balance. If the first batch of angels was summoned through the Angel Descent Formation, how was Michelle born? It's not like there was another elemental angel descent formation in the ancient civilization era!

I recalled Reed mentioning something related to this issue back at Cloud Palace, but I didn't pay much attention at the time. Now it seemed there were indeed many fishy elements!

But what's unknown remained unknown. No matter how much I racked my brain, I couldn't figure out the reason. The fruitless discussion eventually led us to refocus our efforts on the journey ahead.

There's no need to dwell on the descent - it was much quicker than the ascent. After a full day's trek, we finally arrived at the nearest city to Sulide Volcano - Nikaro.

In terms of straight-line distance, this city was even slightly closer than the Holy Capital Jethrobaines. However, its area wasn't very large, around a medium scale. Its biggest downside was the lack of an Adventurer's Guild, which is why Yulanda had opted for the farther Holy Capital when descending the mountain for help initially.

"Heh heh, I feel like I passed through this place on my way up the mountain..."

Looking at the city before us, Judith's expression suddenly became puzzled.

"Strange, I remember the size wasn't this big though, it was more like a small town back then."

"Maybe you're misremembering?"

Cyra didn't think too much of it, continuously urging everyone to quicken their pace. After such a long journey, we could finally rest and relax properly.

"You're probably right, there are likely several small towns of similar scale in the southern regions of the Holy Capital. Perhaps Judith got them mixed up."

Cysper also voiced his agreement. This was just a small hiccup - no one dwelled on it much as they excitedly rushed towards the city gates one by one. However, I was the only one who felt a slight chill, suddenly recalling an extremely tricky and troublesome matter.