Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation

"All clear!" I sighed with relief, looking at the vampire radar in my hand. It showed no vampires within a few kilometers.

It was nighttime in M-country. Almost all the teams were in position. In half an hour, the H-country military bosses would give the order, and everyone could attack their targets.

According to the plan, we had to take over almost all M-country's nuclear bases very quickly. If not, the vampire Ancestor might have time to do something crazy and start a nuclear war!

My team with Adrian was different. We had to wait until the "denuclearization" was almost done before we could face the vampire Ancestor. So for now, we were hiding in this factory (an old gang hideout) waiting for our chance.

"Don't know why, but we still can't contact the two scout team members who escaped earlier," Luke Channing said. He was a H-country soldier assigned to join us. He quickly set up a whole communication base and got more instructions from the base in H-country.

"Next, we should cause some trouble right under the vampire Ancestor's nose to distract him!" Adrian said. "He probably won't decide to destroy everything as soon as he finds out about the invasion, but the other teams still don't have much time. Hope they do well!"

The vampire Ancestor and his followers definitely had some kind of mental communication. This communication was almost impossible for outsiders to cut off, but it had many weaknesses. For example, only higher-ranking vampires could start the communication, and the lower the rank, the weaker the communication. This meant that even if the attack on the nuclear bases started, the vampire Ancestor probably wouldn't know right away.

"But if we want to get attention in such a big city, the trouble we make can't be too small," I said. "But it also can't feel too threatening to the vampire Ancestor, or he might press that nuclear button you talked about if he feels in danger."

Adrian thought for a moment and looked at me. I understood he was hinting that I should keep a low profile. Facing a eight-winged angel, no vampire would feel safe.

"Hey, everyone! Big news! About ten minutes ago, the M-country president made a public speech on TV!" Luke Channing said as he opened his laptop.

"Wasn't the M-country president supposed to be under vampire control already?" I turned around, surprised. Usually, I don't care much about international politics, but this was different. After all, we were here for them.

The president's speech was fast and long. Basically, the speech said: M-country had told the world about Wayne Peng and others being spies, and gave a serious warning to H-country.

"Looks like they're a bit scared. After all, we have an angel on our side. They're using M-country's international influence to pressure H-country," Adrian said. Considering the president was already a vampire, anyone could see what was really going on.

"Right! Normally, the president wouldn't need to make a speech about this. M-country's intelligence agencies would handle it quietly!" Luke Channing nodded. "And they even announced how they'll deal with Wayne Peng. That's not normal either!"

"Wait a minute! Did the M-country president say all the caught spies are now in IAA headquarters for questioning? That's different from what we knew before! Weren't Wayne Peng supposed to be in an abandoned base on the east coast?" I suddenly noticed the contradiction.

"This could be false information from the vampire Ancestor," Adrian said. But talking about prisoners reminded us about another less important goal.

"Could Raydwin be locked up there?" I guessed. I thought Raydwin was probably taken back to the "Blue Palace." But since he had Battle Qi, he might be harder to turn into a vampire than normal people.

"Whether he's there or not, we can use this to distract them," Luke Channing said. He opened the local city map on his computer and found the IAA headquarters. It turned out to be near us.

In the end, the IAA headquarters might just be a trap. The vampire Ancestor was probably watching that place closely in case someone tried to rescue the prisoners. But as long as the vampire Ancestor wasn't there himself, Adrian could easily handle any of his followers. Even if he couldn't win, he could definitely escape. Plus, we might rescue Raydwin. It was a great deal – we could distract them and buy time for the other teams!

"Ah... guys!" Franklin, the local gang boss who was massaging Adrian's shoulders, suddenly spoke up when he saw the map.

"What's wrong?" I looked at Franklin.

After we took over the factory, we spared the two gang bosses because they cooperated well. They were kept in a small room. But Franklin seemed restless. He really admired Adrian's superhuman skills and kept asking to learn from him. He promised to help us and not run away.

Franklin couldn't understand H-country language at all, so he couldn't understand what we were saying. Even if he ran away, he wouldn't be a big threat to us. Since he was just a normal human and easy to control, Adrian finally agreed to let him out.

"That place might be in the 'Blood' gang's area!" Franklin said. "Since they got involved with government officials, we often see their members around there!"

Franklin seemed very scared of this "Blood" gang.

"Let your master help you get rid of this rival completely!" Adrian said, standing up to leave. He felt bad about always getting free massages.

"Wait a minute!" I quickly stopped Adrian. Since coming to Earth, I think Adrian got too much into this "taking disciples" thing. First Raydwin, and now this Franklin guy. I reminded him quietly, "You're not really going to teach him, right? Don't forget, he's a gang boss! He just tried to shoot us earlier!"

"Of course not! I just want someone who knows the area well to be my guide," Adrian replied, shaking his head. He was thinking ahead more than me. We didn't know M-country well. We couldn't always have Luke Channing with us for communication. Franklin, who often dealt with the "Blood" gang, could give us a lot of useful information for our mission to the IAA headquarters.

"Don't show off too much. Try to stay within what Earth people can do," Luke Channing warned. Since we were just trying to get the enemy's attention, we had to play the part well. The most important thing was not to make the vampire Ancestor too alert. Luke Channing offered various modern military equipment to choose from, but Adrian didn't like them much. In the end, he chose to use the submachine guns the local gang had used before.