Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation

"Is this element thing really so amazing? Our scientists still can't figure out what it is!" General Lee said, clearly disappointed they couldn't mass produce the vampire radar.

But the radar was just a nice surprise. Since they couldn't force it, the focus went back to how to kill the ancestor vampire.

There weren't many vampires that snuck into Earth from the start. Besides the one Cyrae and I killed before, only a few were probably left.

From all the info we got, I didn't think there was a third ancestor vampire on Earth now! Almost all the vampires still active in H-country seemed to come from the M-country consulate. So M-country was likely the only vampire group left!

Even though the problem was on the other side of the world, H-country had to do something.

Earth isn't just H-country and M-country. To succeed, they might need some international teamwork and deals. But that wasn't my problem to worry about.

Reed's invention made the mission way easier, but even with the radar, finding the ancestor vampire hiding in M-country wouldn't be easy.

Earth was lucky! The angels they met were mostly us who crossed over. If it was others, they probably wouldn't want to help!

"First, we need to scout properly!" General Lee said. "You said vampires can sense that light element from angels, no matter their level. That might warn them early! So we need to send a human for this job. And we can't use our people already in M-country, because we don't know if they were turned!"

General Lee quickly made the next steps of the plan. Even if we guessed the ancestor was in M-country, H-country's military wouldn't let us big shots just charge in without knowing what's going on there!

But sending a normal human meant they had to bring the vampire radar.

But Earth people are pretty weak fighters, so I still disagreed:

"There's only one radar! If a bunch of vampires surround the scout, knowing where they are won't help. We'd just lose this rare, important asset for nothing."

"We have to try our best to avoid that," General Lee said firmly. "We need to prepare for the worst - M-country's vampires might have full control of their nukes! I don't doubt angels' abilities, but for all humans' safety, we can't push the enemy into a corner right away. If that ancestor sees he's in trouble and decides to launch nukes to destroy himself and all humans on Earth, H-country can't take responsibility for that."

General Lee was super firm about not alerting the enemy. He wanted the takedown to be quick and clean! To completely get them without them noticing.

Usually, big countries have nukes just to scare others. Using them needs lots of complicated unlocking steps. But all vampires only listen to the ancestor, so that safety measure doesn't mean much!

"Plus, we have some super strong people among us Earth humans. We can handle those situations just fine!" a base official added.

I don't know if he was just bragging, but after seeing how strong vampires are, it was surprising he could say that.

This time we might face top fighters from another world! The ancestor's power isn't something Earth's normal weapons can handle.

For a second, I almost couldn't stop myself from showing them what it's like to rip apart a tank or use magic to stop big canons. But I held back to keep a low profile.

Fine! Even if vampires notice, they might not run into the ancestor. Plus, Reed said she could make another radar if this one's lost. H-country's military seemed to have someone in mind for this scouting job, so I stopped arguing and the plan was set.

"Our world's Cyra should be at the 19th Legion outside the base. I'll give you a special pass so you can find her there," General Lee said when I asked where Cyra was after the meeting.

"Outside the base?" I was really surprised!

The 19th Legion guards the area around the base. When vampires caused a rebellion in the base, the 19th Legion stopped the traitors who were pretending to attack outside for distraction.

After the rebellion, to prevent it from happening again, the 19th Legion stopped low level communication with the base unless neccessary. Later, when visitors from other worlds kept showing up, this group also had to stop them from wandering around.

Now the base is totally surrounded. They watch carefully, and no one can pass without the general's permission.

But why did Cyra go to the 19th Legion? I really couldn't figure it out, but since General Lee didn't explain, I guess I'd find out when I got there.

"You only have one hour. You must come back to the base right away when time's up!" the guard said after checking my pass carefully and making a phone call.

Soon, a guide came to take me to a building outside the base.

"Hey, aren't you from inside the base too?" I asked. The soldier looked familiar. I think his name was Chan Layne.

I remembered seeing him when Wayne Peng first visited the elf village, and often around the base later!

"I came to handle a special event in Shine City. Usually Wayne Peng would do this, but he's busy, so I'm filling in," Chan Layne explained.

As Wayne Peng's assistant, Chan Layne knew us pretty well, so he told me straight up.

I knew Wayne Peng left the meeting to catch vampires on General Lee's orders and hadn't come back. But what big event in the city needed special handling at the base?

Maybe it's about vampires too?

I didn't ask more. I just wanted to find Cyra. I followed him to what looked like a reception room.

"Hey, there you are!" I said when I saw Cyra at the reception room entrance. We hadn't seen her for quite long! But she looked really worried. As soon as I saw her, I complained, "What are you doing here? You know the base blocks phone signals. It's super annoying trying to find someone!"

"Oh, you came too?" Cyra said, taking a while to notice me. She just gave a quick reply and went back to thinking about something.

"Of course! I came all the way here just to find you!" I said, almost mad at how she was acting.

Actually, I mainly wanted to talk about Raydwin. We left in a big hurry, he must've felt really sad after reading Cyra's goodbye letter, they spent so much time living together.

Raydwin already knew we came from another world. And secrets always get out somehow. What if he followed the clues and found out about this base? Especially at this special time, if he came, that'd be a huge problem!

Usually we wouldn't worry much about this small issue after leaving Earth. But the space tunnel problem got us stuck on Earth. Plus, Raydwin isn't really a normal person anymore.