"Another teleportation!" Adrian complained, unable to hide his frustration.

Then he turned to look at me worriedly and asked, "What should we do? Do you really think we can trust them?"

"We don't have much choice. All we can do is hope they keep their promise not to interfere with the Empire anymore!" I shrugged. To be honest, if we chose to fight instead, it would have been quite dangerous. Never mind whether Adrian and I could handle fighting against three people - just Mamos's mind control were enough to make me worried.

But thinking about it another way, since they chose to retreat even when they had the upper hand, could this mean they were actually showing some sincerity?

Anyway, this mission could be considered somewhat completed. Although we didn't actually kill Reider himself, the end result was probably close to what we expected.

Also, the rebel army led by various lords should have occupied the Imperial capital by now. As for what direction things would develop next, that wasn't something we needed to worry too much about.

"We better not stay here too long. After all, this villa isn't very far from the Imperial capital. If the rebel army's control has already extended to this area, we might cause some misunderstanding if their soldiers find us!"

After searching the surrounding buildings one more time to make sure no other enemies were hiding around, we were about to leave when Nicola suddenly appeared behind us, looking quite upset.

"So I still came too late? How did you let them get away? What happened?"

After hearing our description of what happened earlier, Nicola sighed with frustration and complained about how we couldn't stop these System carriers.

"Why don't you try it yourself! Aren't you supposed to be able to control time? Go ahead and redo everything!"

Seeing that she still hadn't fixed her arrogant attitude, I rolled my eyes and snapped back at her.

The reason Nicola only found this place now was obviously because she didn't know the way. However, I realized that if she had arrived in time, things might have turned out differently.

"It's not that easy! I've explained so many times. Without an observer nearby, it doesn't matter how many times I try to go back, it won't work!"

To my surprise, Nicola brought up her same old explanation again, saying that even if she activated time reversal, she couldn't change the final result of being late. Moreover, even if she did use an observer to change the past, that would only create a new parallel world, completely separate from our current one - in other words, there was nothing she could do about it.

"Didn't you go after that guy called Hanno? Did you catch him?"

Since the outcome couldn't be changed, Adrian changed the subject and asked thoughtfully. After all, Nicola had separated from us in the beginning because she insisted on going after that System carrier. And her pursuit of Hanno wasn't just for revenge - she was also looking for that book, "Ethereal Ascendance: A Journal of Transformation." However, seeing her empty-handed now, it seemed things didn't go very smoothly?

"Of course I caught him. How could I possibly fail!"

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Hearing this question, Nicola immediately raised her head proudly. But the good mood didn't last long, as she deflated a bit and added, "But the book wasn't with him. I interrogated him for quite a while before that Hanno guy finally told me some truth. Unfortunately, he wasn't very familiar with the story either, but the book was indeed kept with him for some time. However, after being attacked by church knights, he returned it to their team leader for safety."

Based on speculation, "Ethereal Ascendance: A Journal of Transformation" must be quite valuable for System carriers. The team leader should be the captain or Mamos who we just fought with. The important target had come full circle back to these guys.

"Then what about Hanno?"

Adrian couldn't help but ask curiously. Even if we couldn't stop the high-ranking members now, just catching a foot soldier would still be quite valuable - we might be able to get a lot of information out of him.

However, Nicola regretfully told us that she had killed Hanno! Hanno got desperate after being questioned so much, and he claimed some system limitations that Nicola wouldn't believe. So when she wasn't paying attention, he tried to escape.

Unfortunately, he was caught again.

Since she really couldn't get anything else out of him, to prevent similar trouble from happening again, Nicola simply decided to kill Hanno. However, something strange happened after he died - a cross-shaped object floated up from his body, glowing, and then disappeared from her sight along with Hanno's corpse.

"Could it be some kind of revival item?"

That cross somehow sounded familiar, and I couldn't help but ponder. Adrian also seemed to notice something from this, and asked Nicola: "Did you use your time reversal ability to catch Hanno? Why did your power work at that time? If you haven't been lying all along, there's only one possibility that makes sense!"

"...That's right! That Hanno was like you - he was also an Observer (Fate Breaker)!"

After a brief silence, Nicola admitted his guess.

"Another Observer (Fate Breaker)? Are you sure?"

I couldn't help but feel surprised and doubtful. Observers (Fate Breakers) were extremely rare among humans - finding Adrian alone was basically an unexpected gain. Theoretically, it would be very difficult to find a second one! Not to mention two observers appearing at almost the same time and place.

However, as a Wind Angel who controlled time Authority, it wasn't too difficult for Nicola to discover an Observer (Fate Breaker)'s traces in the flow of time. Moreover, considering that Hanno wasn't actually a human from this world, but rather an outsider System carrier, this conclusion didn't seem too contrary to common sense.

"What if there's some kind of connection between System carriers and Observers (Fate Breakers)?"

Adrian seemed to notice a blind spot we had been ignoring all along - this was quite an interesting angle. But Nicola didn't seem to care much about it. After all, she was still more concerned about the future development of the other world.

"I won't be going with you. You guys head back to Norvale first. I'm planning to go to the holy city of Jethrobaines!"

She seemed to have made up her mind long ago. After giving us these instructions, she jumped up into the air and turned to fly toward the cave exit.

"Wait!"

Her departure caught Adrian and me off guard. In the past, I might not have bothered to stop her - more so because I couldn't stop her anyway. But thinking about Nicola's strange behaviors lately, I quickly turned to Adrian and told him to wait here, then rushed after Nicola.

"Are you going to ask why I'm going to the holy city?"

Seemingly already aware of my intentions, Nicola stopped to wait for me to catch up. Then, without hiding anything, she explained the reason.

It turned out that under her harsh questioning, Hanno had also revealed some other important information. For example, there seems to be more than one System teams that entered our world, and some other information obtained from the mind-controlled Star Glory knight Dylan.

According to him, the current Pope had once told his subordinates that there might be a major secret hidden under the Pope's palace in the center of the holy city, related to this world's origins!

This undoubtedly aroused great interest among the System carriers led by Mamos, so naturally, it could be concluded that they would very likely go to the holy city.

"But... the problems don't end there!"

However, these contents didn't seem like the key point to me. Looking straight into her eyes, I asked ruthlessly, "Why are you so determined to chase after them? Is it really necessary to figure out what's written in that book?"

"..."

This seemed to hit a sensitive topic, as Nicola suddenly looked a bit awkward but didn't say anything more.

"Anyway, Adrian isn't here right now, so you don't need to worry! Did something else happen between you and the Adrian from the other world?"

This question had been held back for a long time, and I blurted it out without thinking.