Chapter 15: The Next Target

"As everyone knows, I entered the Cycle Of Rebirth on what you now call the Dark Continent. Michelle suddenly started hating humans a lot. I didn't want her to become so extreme, so for thousands of years I've kept her locked up in the Cycle, kind of like where you are now..."

I thought Galadra would talk about urgent matters happening now, but she jumped back 10,000 years instead. I wonder if she's a social media influencer - why not start from the beginning of the world?

And "as everyone knows"? I doubt that. But I had heard rumors from Elara about Galadra going to the Dark Continent before monsters became powerful. So I didn't interrupt and let her continue.

"Three years ago, a mysterious person suddenly appeared. Somehow they secretly broke the space limits and freed Michelle! As soon as Michelle was free, she used her power to conquer the dark element creatures living on the Dark Continent. In a very short time, she united the whole Dark Continent, called herself the God of Fire, and even set up some Dark Council!"

Galadra sighed, remembering how close the four Elemental Angels used to be.

"Once she left the Cycle, it wasn't so easy for me to lock her up again with my power. I understand why Michelle did all this on the Dark Continent. She was locked up for thousands of years, so she must have felt very frustrated. So I agreed with Michelle that as long as she didn't bother human countries, I'd leave her alone for now. Dark element creatures have always been enemies with humans for thousands of years, so when she asked many times, I even agreed to help her a bit, like with the 'Eye of Galadra' and such. But I didn't expect that thousands of years still didn't soften the hate in her heart. After uniting the Dark Continent, Michelle stayed quiet for a few years. But in the end, she broke our agreement and started bothering southern Eldoria Continent through the Barren Lands. Finally, we split up again."

Seeing the sad look on her face, I knew I guessed right! I was sent to the Dark Continent before, so I know Michelle's position in the monster army well. But I was wrong that Galadra was on their side. If she's not lying to me, I must have misunderstood her before.

"After splitting up with Michelle again, I finally found where she was a year ago. She seemed to have suffered a big loss and was badly hurt. So I easily locked her up again without much trouble."

Galadra kept talking, but now she gave me a meaningful look.

"But then something strange happened. In the outside world, there was still a lively Michelle leading dark element creatures to cause trouble everywhere. This was unheard of! Michelle is good with energy, but I never heard she could have a clone! Thinking back to how hurt she was when I caught her again, normal humans definitely couldn't cause that much damage. After asking questions, I finally understood this was because future Liana controlled time."

Hearing this, I suddenly understood. She meant future twelve-winged Nicola sending Michelle back one year. I already knew Michelle went back to the past when she invaded Edenmere, but I never expected this small story had such big consequences.

"Normally, Liana couldn't just appear on Eldoria Continent without my help. Plus there was another Michelle outside. I couldn't keep two Fire Angels locked up by myself! So I decided to go along with the future and try to bring Liana back from Earth to help. Right then, under Michelle's lead, dark element creatures got some news from somewhere. They were attacking the Angel Descent Formation that the angel clan was doing in Elara Woodlands with all their strength. The Angel Descent Formation happened to connect to the Cycle Of Rebirth, so I took the chance to change where the Formation connected. I made the space opening lead to Earth where Liana should be..."

"Ah? So back then it was you... you..."

I was totally confused. I pointed at Galadra with my mouth open, too shocked to say a full sentence for a long time. So she was behind it all. Galadra was the reason we crossed over!

"What's wrong?"

The most annoying thing was, the culprit was looking at me confused, not understanding why I reacted like this.

I guess it makes sense. She didn't need to care about a few humans from another world dying. She couldn't know that because of what she did, more than ten of my classmates died horribly at the hands of monsters. She even smiled and sighed. "I didn't expect you'd come back with Liana. Maybe it was really fate. Thanks to monsters interrupting the Angel Descent Formation at the last minute, I got this chance, so..."

"Welcome back, Feliciana!"

"This... I..."

Looking at Galadra's sincere smile as she opened her arms to me, I felt a bit moved. After hesitating for a while, I finally gave up on scolding her and hugged her back.

Maybe it was my imagination, but even though Galadra didn't have a real body now and I was in spirit form, she still gave me a strange warmth. When we separated again, I decided to put aside the issue of my classmates for now and ask from a different angle.

"So you knew from the start that Nicola... Liana's soul and mine were on Earth?"

"Of course! Actually, I sent you two there myself. Do you want to know the exact reason? That's another long story!"

Covering her mouth and laughing again, Galadra asked me even though she knew the answer.

"Uh, why don't we get back to the main topic? What's the crisis you need my help with?"

I don't really want to hear much about Gisphrael's past. I'm a tiny bit curious, but the most important thing now is finding out what urgent situation she's talking about. Okay, basically I just don't want her to talk about the past and tease me on purpose again. This Galadra seems to like playing tricks on people. I don't have most of Gisphrael's memories, so just thinking about that makes me feel awkward.

"What crisis could there be? Of course it's that troublemaker Michelle again!"

Galadra's face darkened when she mentioned Michelle again.

From what she said next, I can sum it up in one sentence: The Michelle who was locked up in the past escaped again, and after losing several fights, she finally couldn't hold back and started going after Galadra too.

Maybe because she escaped once before and got some experience, this time Michelle only took about a year to figure out how to break free on her own. She escaped using just her own power. After being hurt by twelve-winged Nicola, her power increased even more. Now Galadra has no body and can't do anything about her.

After being badly beaten in Edenmere and escaping back, Michelle returned to the Dark Continent and asked Galadra for help several times. She wanted celestial weapons like the "Eye of Galadra" again, but was firmly refused. But things didn't end there. Knowing Michelle wouldn't give up easily, Galadra finally got news in the last few days that Michelle might lose patience and go after the Cycle Of Rebirth.

Getting the Cycle Of Rebirth would indirectly control souls being reborn, which would definitely have many extra benefits. This was happening right after Parristol crashed and Fernando's plan failed and he ran away. Michelle might have heard the news and decide to do this in anger.

"But how can she do it? Isn't the Cycle Of Rebirth in another space?"

I doubted a bit. Michelle herself can't control space. She was able to escape on her own last time because of her previous experience. Finding the Cycle Of Rebirth in another space again without Galadra's help would definitely be very difficult.

"...I'm afraid it might be hard for you to understand, so let me show you."

After hesitating a bit, Galadra looked at the huge virtual screen in front still showing scenes of family life. She bit her lip and skillfully started controlling it. "This is equipment for watching the outside world. I'm the Earth Angel, and even though I don't have a body anymore, I can still freely control earth elements to watch the real world through my soul's projection outside. This means I can use this to freely check real-time scenes of any place in the outside world that has earth elements."

I get it! The "Eye of Galadra" has this function too! Galadra very skillfully zoomed the scene out to a map level, then zoomed in and focused on another area. She pointed at a mirror-like dome in the forest and explained:

"From what some dark element creatures say day to day, I know their next target is this place! It should be near the eastern border of Ilandra Dominion Empire. But sadly, I can't see anything inside the dome because it blocks out earth elements. What's worse is, the next projection of the Cycle Of Rebirth will appear nearby. So I'm really worried Michelle might have some bad plans..."

Doesn't Ilandra Dominion usually work with monsters? Why would monsters target the empire's land? This information is very unusual!

Thinking of this, I frowned a bit. Could there really be something fishy going on?