"...I get it now, you're the main characters, and you must be Nicola!"

The gold necklace man lying on the ground, who looked confused before, suddenly brightened up after hearing our conversation. He pointed at Nicola and us excitedly. "This is great, meeting you here! Please don't kill me - we don't have any real conflict. We could even work together!"

"Main characters? What do you mean? Who exactly are you?"

Hearing this made me more confused. Like the blonde girl Mamos we met earlier, this gold necklace man didn't talk like a normal guard. I quickly stepped forward to ask.

"If I'm not wrong, he's probably a 'System' carrier like Reider!"

Before he could answer, Nicola chimed in. She seemed to know more secrets than us, probably from sorting through messy future visions. She gave a cold laugh and explained:

"About the main characters he mentioned, from what I know, he probably wasn't talking about us. The book you asked about too - it's likely about the parallel world I crossed over to before."

"That book 'Ethereal Ascendance: A Journal of Transformation' is about another world?"

Hearing this, I finally felt relieved. After all, it's scary to have your own experiences written in a book. Though Cyrae's world was similar to this one in some ways, there were still big differences.

"Wait! Even if it's a parallel world, why is there a book recording what happened there? And how is he also a 'System' carrier?"

But Adrian found many things still didn't make sense. The situation had gotten more complex, with another 'System' person appearing out of nowhere.

"Unfortunately, I'm not very clear about the book details either! All I know for sure is that Reider isn't the only one with a 'System' - they're probably all working together!"

Nicola answered helplessly. Actually, she had already gotten lots of information about how the 'System' worked from Irene before, like how there were multiple carrier teams, and many restrictions on them. Adrian and I had heard about this too!

But whether Reider's 'System' was the same as the one Irene mentioned was still a mystery. This was one reason why we took on the mission to find Reider.

But now it seemed Nicola was completely convinced they were the same thing!

"Tell me! Where exactly did you hide 'Ethereal Ascendance: A Journal of Transformation'?"

We clearly needed to get our hands on the book and read it. The only clue now was this gold necklace man. After explaining things to us, Nicola questioned him again.

"Whoa! We should be allies, not enemies! I'll tell you everything..."

Maybe because he now knew who we were, the gold necklace man was much less resistant this time. As soon as he felt pain, he gave up struggling and spilled everything.

It turned out the book wasn't actually on him. He was supposed to patrol this area today with a teammate called Hanno, but their captain had sent an emergency gathering notice midway. So in the scene Nicola foresaw, Hanno, who had the book, never actually showed up.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"This 'captain' you're talking about must be the same person Mamos mentioned earlier, right?"

Though I had no idea who "Hanno" was, I caught this detail and connected it to the blonde girl we met before.

"Yes, this likely means they're all part of the same team. That matches what Nicola and Irene told us!"

Adrian nodded in agreement. But thinking about it, if this guess was right, finding the book would probably be quite difficult.

Based on the timing, the incident where the Star Glory Knight and the gold necklace man's teammate died together must have happened not long before Nicola's vision of their discussion. I remembered quite a few people were captured along with Mamos - Hanno was probably among them. If so, wouldn't that mean "Ethereal Ascendance: A Journal of Transformation" was destroyed by Meredith too?

"So that's what happened on the other side? We can't rule out that possibility!"

After hearing what Adrian and I described, Nicola's face darkened. She turned and yanked the gold necklace man up from the ground, then asked fiercely:

"You must have read the book before, right? Tell me everything about the plot and ending right now! What happened to everyone in the end?"

"Ah, the ending? You want to know the ending! But you're the main characters - won't this change how the story goes..."

When gold necklace man heard Nicola's demand, he seemed hesitant. But his little bit of resistance couldn't stand up to the Condensation Sword. As expected, after a few rounds he confessed everything.

"Don't worry! It was a very good ending, a happy ending! Feliciara was successfully revived, all four elemental angels came together, and you defeated the invasion from 'Spring'..."

From how he talked, it seemed the Feliciara in that other world didn't have my problem of incomplete soul. So she gave that world's Nicola huge help in the final battle, even erasing 'Spring's' mental imprints from another dimension, leading to victory.

"I'm not asking about that - I mean the others! Like..."

But Nicola didn't look satisfied. She seemed to have something hard to say, wanting to express but hesitating. After thinking for a while, she finally found the right words and excitedly blurted out: "Supporting characters! Yes, what happened to those supporting characters who helped the main characters through hard times? In the book you read, what were their endings?"

"Huh? Supporting characters? Not many of them died..."

Unfortunately, though the gold necklace man had read the book, he hadn't studied it carefully. He looked up very confused, thinking for a while before giving a broken answer. "Besides some high school classmates who crossed over and sadly died, about half of them were still alive!"

"Idiot! That's not what I meant..."

Seemingly frustrated by his response, Nicola still hadn't gotten the answer she wanted. I could tell she was conscious of Adrian and me being nearby. Seeing the gold necklace man always missing the key points, she finally glanced at me and softened her voice:

"Fine, I'm mainly asking about Adrian, the new king of Parristol who had a sky city!"

"Eh?"

Adrian beside me heard this and pointed at himself in surprise. Fortunately, he had experienced multiple parallel world crossings and had seen other versions of himself, so he quickly understood Nicola wasn't talking about him.

"That guy? Wasn't he already dead before Feliciara was revived? Though his sky city helped a lot in rescuing Michelle, it was old and not fully functional. Plus with their god personally stepping in, it was quickly destroyed."

With Nicola's prompt, the gold necklace man suddenly remembered and gave his puzzled answer.

"So he died after all?"

This was the first time I learned that the Adrian from another world had died! However, Nicola didn't seem very surprised, as if she had expected it, though she still asked reluctantly: "Didn't the revived Feliciara try to bring him back to life?"

It made sense to ask this since the other world's version of me probably had some revival powers too.

"I don't know about that! I didn't read the later parts carefully..."

This question stumped the gold necklace man. He tried hard to remember but couldn't recall that part of the story, making Nicola grab his collar and shake him. "What kind of reading did you do? Where were your eyes? Just tell me if he was saved or not!"

"I really don't know! He was just a supporting character, and our team only had one copy of the book. Everyone focused on important parts..."

It seemed he really didn't know what happened later. Looking at Nicola's attitude, everyone including Adrian and me could tell something was off. Combined with his knowledge of the other world's story, the gold necklace man suddenly guessed the reason.

"Could it be... you're Wind Angel Nicola, the one Galadra summoned from another world?"