Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation

"So these folks still say they're Feliciana, Adrian, and Reed? They claim that earlier today, they left with the imperial diplomatic group to go back to Alpha world as planned. But somehow they ended up back here in the portal hall?" General Lee asked, putting down the notes and taking a deep breath.

"What do you think?"

Alpha world was what the H-country bigshots called the newly found world for now. As the first country to discover a new world, especially one with magic so different from Earth, they weren't gonna ignore any possible threats.

That's why when the other Feliciana and Adrian arrived, General Lee locked them up right away to be safe. He had them questioned too.

What's more, a few minutes after those two were taken away, another Reed also came out of the portal. She got the same treatment and was quickly sent to another interrogation room.

"Could this be a trick? Maybe it's that 'disguise magic' the empire people mentioned. They know they can't beat us in a fight, so they're playing dirty?" one H-country military officer asked, unsure.

"Let's not talk about Katarina and the empire folks who left earlier. But we didn't actually see these three enter the portal. That doesn't match what happened! If you're right, why would they tell such a dumb lie?" Wayne Peng disagreed, pointing at me. As important witnesses and Earth partners, me, Adrian, Cyra, and the real Reed were trusted and invited to join the meeting.

"I've said it many times - this isn't magic or a disguise! It's because that vampire died inside the portal, causing something weird to happen! Now it looks like the other end of the portal might be connected to a parallel Earth. I didn't expect this at all!" Reed sighed and explained her view again. She had read the three people's interview reports carefully and come to this early conclusion.

"We Earth people have heard about parallel worlds before. This theory does explain some of the confusing parts..." General Lee said, frowning and picking up another file. "But I remember you're an angel from Alpha world, right? People there use magic and many don't know basic science. So how do you know about parallel worlds and tech stuff?"

"Uh..." I suddenly felt nervous. This question touched on the secret that Reed and all of us actually crossed over from Earth. But Reed didn't seem to want to reveal this secret. Instead, she tried to explain it away:

"Earth element is closely related to space. Angels can't directly sense or use earth element magic, but I can control it indirectly with magic circles! The portal connecting two worlds and instant movement magic are applications of earth element theory. Only earth element can do space stuff! Our world's space research isn't worse than Earth's. Magic has many uses, and you've only explored a small part of the wild south in the Ilandra Dominion Empire!"

Reed was hinting that even though Earth's army was winning in the empire so far, it was only because they were new and hadn't gone far. There were many strong people in Eldoria Continent. Just one vampire gave the H-country government trouble. If they met stronger fighters later, guns might not be enough.

General Lee wiped sweat from his forehead after hearing this. Maybe the H-country army had some setbacks with exploring, or got important info from the empire group. Reed's words clearly hit home, and he finally accepted the parallel world idea.

"Okay, since you say you've studied space and correctly predicted the portal problem, I'll agree with you for now! To be honest, space and magic are not our strong points. We hope you can provide us advice."

"If these three really are you guys from a parallel world, does that mean our people would end up on the parallel Earth if they go through the portal?" another H-country military officer asked.

"That's possible, but it's very dangerous. I really don't think you should do it!" Reed answered after thinking a bit. She warned, "The portal is very unstable after the dark element got in. We can't be sure it's two-way anymore. Coming out safely is one thing, but going in is another! The people you send might get lost in unknown space gaps. They might not even make it back to this world!"

"But you need to know, we have lots of H-country people on missions at the base in Alpha world! If we can't fix the portal, they'll be stuck there forever!" General Lee said with a serious face. With Earth's current tech, they knew almost nothing about space. He seemed to be putting all his hope on Reed and us outsiders to solve this. "I'm sure you don't want your way back to be blocked forever either? I can give you access to most areas in the base, including research ficilities. But you have to fix this problem no matter what. Otherwise, even you guys will be stuck on Earth forever!"

"...I'll do my best!" Reed agreed after hesitating for a moment.

But I didn't think she could easily solve this difficult problem. Her earlier explanation had some boasting in it. Space issues aren't like light element. Not being able to directly sense earth element is probably the trickiest part.

But knowing Reed, since she took on this task, she probably had some way to deal with it.

"I told you guys before! Why didn't you kill those two vampires earlier? Then we wouldn't have all this trouble now!" Cyra finally got a chance to speak and complained, slapping the table. But this was just saying 'I told you so' after the fact.

"That dead foreign vampire had a sensitive identity. He was a top member at the M-country consulate in our Shine Metropolitan! We can't just kill diplomats. Plus there's the issue of keeping the portal secret. So even though we knew he was infected, we could only lock him up for now. We were hoping you angels could cure him later," Wayne Peng explained with a bitter smile. Now this diplomat was dead, without even leaving a body! H-country didn't know how to make up a good excuse to deal with pressure from M-country.

But why M-country again? This seemed too much of a coincidence. I remembered Cylaren once said the foreigners who kidnapped her great-granddaughter Tingting were probably from M-country's Miaten Medical Group. The guys who escaped from Raydwin could very well be vampires too.

I couldn't figure out what connection there was between Miaten Medical and the M-country government. But it's pretty normal for the government to work closely with big companies and financial groups.

Could vampires have infiltrated M-country on the other side of Earth too?

"The other vampire looks like an H-country person, but he probably shared info with the M-country consulate, right? This is an important clue! You guys better watch him closely this time. Don't let him escape again!" Adrian reminded them, a bit worried.

"We've learned our lesson. We'll use stricter isolation measures from now on. When everything's ready, we might trouble one of you angels to help purify him," Wayne Peng promised, finally thinking of our angels' special abilities.

"Leave it to me. Purifying is super easy!" Cyra volunteered eagerly. With her rank, she could easily do this job. But she was probably trying to make a good impression on General Lee.

It seemed she didn't have much hope that Reed could fix the portal problem either.

"I just thought of something - why isn't she among the people from the parallel world?" General Lee asked with interest, his eyes fixed on Cyra ever since she started speaking up.