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Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation
Vol 5/ Chapter 16: A Thousands-Year Homebody

Vol 5/ Chapter 16: A Thousands-Year Homebody

To understand what the Cycle of Rebirth's projection is, we need to explain the Cycle of Rebirth first.

Galadra created the Cycle of Rebirth using her own power. Its job is to manage souls and guide them to be reborn. Besides angels, some humans on Eldoria Continent know about this too. To me, it's a lot like the legends on Earth.

The Cycle of Rebirth manages souls and guides them to be reborn. So the main element isn't light, like you might think, but earth!

Earth element has a hidden space ability. This is needed to make sure every soul can quickly come to the Cycle of Rebirth after death, and be reborn anywhere in the world. Of course, the Cycle of Rebirth isn't just pure earth element. It uses all elements except fire to do things like erase souls' memories.

Galadra says the Cycle of Rebirth was born on the Dark Continent. But for safety and secrecy, it's actually hidden in a high-dimension space. The room we're in now is inside the Cycle of Rebirth. Galadra made it specially, and says it's set up like the room Michelle was locked in before. But Michelle was physical then, and I'm a spirit now. Usually, only formless spirits can break space limits to come here.

It's like how angels use "Spiritual Convergence" magic to talk. You can use it anywhere there's continuous light element. The Cycle of Rebirth is the same. Anywhere there's continuous earth element, Galadra can use her space power to collect dead souls from the world into the Cycle of Rebirth, then send them out to be reborn.

But there's no earth element in this high-dimension space where the Cycle of Rebirth is (actually no elements at all). And it can't just drop into the low-dimension world anytime. So to manage souls from other worlds, it has to project outside. The Galadra I see now isn't her real soul. She's just a small part of mental power split from the Cycle of Rebirth, like a "clone". Galadra, whose soul became the Cycle of Rebirth, can make many of these "clones". But her mind still needs to project to go outside, so she has many limits. This gives Michelle outside many chances.

In the end, without help from others, Galadra can't easily stop Michelle and her followers in the real world. Michelle might even be able to use the projection to find the exact location of the Cycle of Rebirth. Then it would be even harder to guard!

"But I'm probably not strong enough to beat Michelle, right?"

I remember how hard it was to fight Fernando and Mirium alone on Chromos Tower. If I agree to help, wouldn't I just be going to die for nothing?

Michelle escaped from Edenmere badly hurt a long time ago. She must be mostly healed by now. This kind of "rough job" shouldn't be for me, right?

"You're Gisphrael's reincarnation. Even though your damaged soul makes it hard to get back all your original power, you should still be able to manage in special situations. Haven't you noticed? Whenever there's a crisis, you always find ways to break through using water element power. Maybe this is a chance!"

Galadra gave me a meaningful look, then turned back to the virtual screen. But she seemed a bit distracted.

I know she has a point. My blue wing state suddenly woke up in a dangerous moment like this. Adonis and the others predicted they saw me using water element even more in the future. But Adrian changed history and saved me early from the Slime King's body. So the "cheat code" that just arrived got stuck activating and quit. I lost a big chance to get stronger.

Of course I don't blame Adrian. But I'm starting to think maybe I shouldn't be so careful all the time. Nicola already has eight wings. I can't compare to her naturally, but I still only have six wings. I've been stuck at this level for a long time. If I want to protect Adrian, I can't always depend on the Sage Council. I need to find a way to get stronger myself.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"You can relax completely. You still have me! Even though my power is limited now, I can still barely provide some teleporting and help with earth element stuff. If that's not enough, I can bring in a few helpers for you! Then you won't be afraid, right?"

Galadra stared at the screen thinking for a while. Finally she gave me an unreliable safety guarantee without turning around. But even so, I can't agree to her request right away. After all, our group has stayed in Crescent City so many days to wait for news for Reed. We need to wait for tomorrow's results before deciding what to do.

"It's okay. You can contact me anytime where there's earth element. I left several clones in the outside world. Just call me when you decide! But hurry up, there's not much time left!"

She waved her hand carelessly, as if she already knew all my worries.

She switched the virtual screen back to the city I saw when I first came in. It was still that same family, still that view like peeking, and she was watching with great interest. I got curious and couldn't help asking.

"Why do you keep watching these people? Is something wrong with them? Don't tell me they're actually monster spies in the human world!"

"Huh? No, of course not!"

Galadra turned back surprised. She pointed at a pitiful-looking woman on the screen and explained.

"This is actually a small country in the southwest of the continent, called Saint Agnes. It's very far from the north! Dark element creatures rarely invade there. This woman is a refugee from a neighboring country. Her original country was ruined by war. To survive, she married into a rich local family as a second wife. But her mother-in-law and the first wife don't like her, so she works hard every day to keep up with housework..."

So it's just ordinary family drama! What's so special about that? To me it's not worth mentioning, but Galadra doesn't think so.

"Why is it boring? It's very interesting! These humans are so pitiful. I've seen many people in similar situations before, but most of their exact circumstances are different. Human family relationships are really complicated! It's heartbreaking to watch. So sometimes I secretly give a little help to interfere a bit. Like the one you see now, she's about to turn things around and become the main wife. These few days are the key time!"

I finally understand. She's watching these real family problems like a soap opera! But that's not quite right. Since she can interfere a bit, Galadra is actually playing these real stories like an interactive game. No wonder she never gets tired of it!

"Don't tell me you've been stuck in rooms like this playing these games all these years?"

I can't help asking suspiciously. From how she talks, she seems to know a lot. Obviously, she's very skilled at changing people's lives without being noticed, which is very hard to do.

"What do you mean games? This is observation, understand? How else would I know where people die and where people need to be reborn? Even if I can't help changing some humans' futures a bit sometimes, I can't help it. I'm very bored, you know!"

Galadra immediately argued back confidently, taking the chance to complain. "You know, sending lots of clones to project onto the outside world uses up a lot of my mental power. So it's simpler and easier to do it this way! And watching human activities is really interesting, just like you told me back then!"

Okay, it seems she's gone a bit crazy from being cooped up. I have nothing to say. But what did I tell her back then? After a while I realized Galadra must mean Gisphrael, so of course I don't remember.

It turns out that not just these years, but for several thousand years, Galadra has mostly been stuck in this kind of place. She watches all kinds of human activities on the continent indirectly. Not just the family drama "ethical play" I saw, but also adventurers going out to fight, city guards investigating cases, and so on. All kinds of stories. She's just like a super homebody sitting in front of a computer!

Come to think of it, the founder of the angel clan is actually a thousand-year homebody? She doesn't do important things all day, just likes to peek at human family drama. If this big news got out, Edenmere would probably hang its head in shame. Of course, this world probably doesn't have words like "homebody" anyway...

"Anyway, go back and think it over! We sisters haven't seen each other for so long. It would be too mean if you didn't help with this little thing! If I really get bitten back by that brat Michelle, it would be so embarrassing! And the Cycle of Rebirth was your idea first, so you should take some responsibility, right?"

She must be annoyed that I'm sitting beside her disturbing her TV watching. Galadra impatiently starts to send me away. She lies down on the sofa, instantly showing her "true form".

She takes a lazy pose and waves at me. Suddenly everything spins, and when I open my eyes next second, I see another strange sight.

First I see a bunch of bright golden hair, hanging down to my neck. It feels a bit itchy. Strangely, this head with golden hair is moving around on my chest, as if smelling something, or maybe checking my body...