"Which idiot dares to control me!"

After coming back to her senses, Nicola's wings returned to their original pure white color. Now protected by the light element, she wasn't afraid of enemy control anymore. She kept looking around, trying to find who was behind this.

"Hanno, things have changed - retreat now!"

Surprisingly, the gold necklace man who had escaped earlier hadn't gone far. His voice came from behind the door. Hanno, who was already losing the fight against Adrian, immediately escaped through another door. He was apparently well-trained and had prepared for this.

"That guy is Hanno?"

Adrian and I weren't planning to chase after him, but Nicola couldn't stay calm when she heard that name. Based on what the gold necklace man said earlier, the book "Ethereal Ascendance: A Journal of Transformation" she'd been searching for might be with that young man. Plus, she still had a score to settle about being mind-controlled. Seeing him about to disappear into the darkness, she spread her wings and flew after him.

"Aren't we going to follow them?"

Seeing Adrian signaling me not to chase, I turned back and asked in confusion.

"This isn't the first time something like this has happened. With Nicola's skills, catching Hanno shouldn't be too hard. We don't need to worry about her!"

Adrian walked to the war room's round table. Looking at a map left there, he seemed thoughtful and waved me over. "Come look at this!"

The map showed the layout of the entire royal villa inside the mountain. It clearly marked every place we'd been through. At the innermost area, we saw a fortress-like symbol, exactly matching the inner fortress Reider might be hiding.

"So you want to go straight for Reider?"

Obviously, that girl Mamos who could control minds was probably still alive, and their attack on us was likely just to rescue someone. Now that they'd achieved their goal, they must have escaped.

Reider was our real target for this mission, and since we didn't know the area well, there was no point chasing the others.

"Even though they changed their plans and set this trap, it seems the information they revealed wasn't all lies."

The inner fortress wasn't too far from here. Adrian studied the route carefully, then put away the map and led me back to the command area we'd passed through earlier.

There was a wider road here, with lamps placed along both sides. Following this road, it didn't take long before we reached the inner fortress marked on the map.

"The Ilandra Dominion Empire sure has deep pockets, building such a fancy place even here?"

Looking at the scene before me, I couldn't help but comment.

Carving a small fortress in a mountain cave wasn't special in the Eldoria Continent. But this fortress took up an entire wall of the cave, and every part of its outer walls was covered in beautiful carvings. With natural light falling from the ceiling above, it was truly breathtaking.

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

Next, Adrian and I rushed straight in. The fortress wasn't actually very spacious inside, though it had several floors. Most of it was narrow corridors connecting different rooms, and we couldn't see a single person anywhere.

"Did we come here for nothing?"

I couldn't hide my disappointment.

"What! This isn't the world of 'Ethereal Ascendance: A Journal of Transformation'?"

But unexpectedly, at that moment, we heard voices coming from a room on the second floor.

Adrian and I looked at each other, then turned invisible. We held our breath and sneaked toward the room.

Our patience paid off. Looking through the door crack, we saw two people inside. One was Reider, who we'd been searching for! The other man was a stranger - he was very muscular, much more built than common people, wearing sunglasses with a bald head. He was probably another person carrying a system. We heard him speaking calmly to Reider:

"I'm not sure exactly what's going on, but this is the urgent news Mamos just sent through spiritual link. Looks like the 'System' has been fooling us!"

"No wonder I've been confused all these years about why I couldn't find any trace of the Ancient God Religion, but instead this True Church! Even the later story went completely different from the book. I thought it was because I entered the world early and caused butterfly effects..."

So Reider was only learning the truth now. He looked shocked and fell into deep thought:

"But many questions still remain! Like what exactly is this True Church? Though it's almost identical to the religion we know about, there are many differences. Most importantly, how did it appear in this world?"

"You've been working in this world for so many years but haven't figured out why - the secrets hidden here must be very deep and not easy to uncover."

But the bald man with sunglasses wasn't interested in thinking too much about it. He stepped forward, patted Reider's shoulder, and said in a deep voice: "According to Mamos's guess, although this world isn't the one from the book, it must be closely connected. Things aren't looking good - we need to retreat and rethink our plans!"

"What, retreat?"

This was shocking news. Reider almost jumped up: "Captain, didn't I say earlier that we could probably hold out? Those rebels probably don't know this place. If we keep charging out to kill them, then hide back inside the city's protective barrier to recover, eventually the enemy will be worn down!"

"You dare bring that up!"

These words suddenly angered the bald man. As captain, and he scolded Reider harshly:

"All team members pooled resources to get enough points so you could enter this world early and build advantages for us. But you've made a complete mess of the Ilandra Dominion Empire! Mamos just reported that True Church Knights have invaded this place and killed many of our newbies, so your plan has totally failed! Not only that, all current plans must be scrapped and reconsidered. Plus, there are bigger enemies waiting - we can't get stuck here and die!"

"Captain, there are reasons! That out-of-control Space Tunnel actually connected to Earth in another world - how could imperial soldiers stand against guns? The empire would eventually be swallowed up and divided by Earth. That's why I had to retreat to survive and regroup with you to fight back later. But then the tunnel went back to normal and closed, and the System tasks started on schedule, so I fought hard to come back. Even if I don't deserve credit, I've suffered for it!"

Who would have thought that the once mighty emperor, who ruled supreme, would become so humble in front of the bald man with sunglasses.

After reaching agreement, they went to a wall in the room. Reider stepped forward and took down a huge painting, revealing a secret passage behind it.

"This tunnel leads directly to a garden of the royal villa. We can tell Mamos's team to go first, then meet up once we're safe!"

Having been emperor for so many years, Reider finished explaining to the captain and prepared to enter the tunnel.

"Don't run!"

But Adrian and I couldn't let them escape. We shouted and charged in.

"Who's there!?"

The bald man with sunglasses reacted very quickly, turning his head and immediately locating my position. Remember, the invisibility spell hadn't worn off yet - he pinpointed my location just from the moving air, and threw a punch toward me.

This wasn't an ordinary punch. While I was still surprised that the stone floor under his feet was starting to crack, an incredibly powerful shockwave came at me with a loud "BANG!"