Chapter 127: Swap, Sneak in  

Close to midnight, we finally reached the peak of a mountain in the Dona Mountain Range.

Although the area under foot was rugged and uneven terrain in the mountains, the scene before our eyes was completely different! Illuminated by the moonlight, we could see an extremely vast depression, forming a very standard basin compared to the surrounding elevation. Parristol was situated at the flat bottom of this basin.

From my current position, I could overlook the entire city. I could clearly see that Parristol city was circular in shape, with an extremely tall city wall built around the outermost perimeter. The city scale wasn't too large. However, the city area was pitch black at the moment, eerily silent, with only a few scattered lights visible and almost no buildings in sight.

"Why is it so dead? Did everyone go to sleep?" 

Cyra yawned, unable to help wondering.

"But it's not even midnight yet, there should be more than just these few lights on, right?"

"Indeed, it's very abnormal. As a border intersection for several countries, Parristol is quite developed in commerce and trade. Entire streets are usually busy operating all night long, with a million lights shining! How could it become like this?"

Gazing at the scene below, Brennan couldn't help but immediately think of the worst possibility.

"Could they all have been..."

Involuntarily recalling the situation in the previous village, everyone's expressions changed.

"Don't scare us! It's not that exaggerated. Maybe due to declaring independence, facing imminent war with the kingdom, they specially imposed a curfew under that pressure?"

Yulanda quickly spoke up to reassure them, but upon saying it, she shook her head, negating her own viewpoint.

"No, that doesn't seem right either...a curfew shouldn't mean so few lights too!"

"Why don't we just proceed according to plan and check out the city? We can figure out the situation then."

After some thought, since staying here guessing was pointless, I turned to Reed standing behind me with the suggestion.

"Of course, but you all should retract your wings after entering the city area. Since there may be monsters present inside, it's best to be cautious!"

Reed naturally wouldn't object, conducting reconnaissance under the night was her own proposal. But before departing, she reminded us to stay safe.

As for the team members, with Parristol having a city wall as an obstacle, the task of sneaking into the city could only fall to us angels!

After all, entering through irregular means was convenient if you could fly!

However, for concealment and safety, we couldn't have all four angels going together. The most reasonable arrangement was to move in pairs. But there was a small disagreement in deciding the members.

Logically, Mia and I were the most suitable choices. However, Mia insisted on not leaving Reed's side, her top priority being ensuring Reed's safety in this dangerous place. She absolutely refused to be even a step away from Reed.

But we couldn't have her and Reed on the frontlines either...no matter how you looked at it, that wasn't appropriate. Reed was a two-winged angel who had never fought before, so the responsibility fell to Cyra and me by default.

I didn't mind, but I was extremely uneasy about that Cyra. I was considering just going alone when Cysper volunteered, claiming he had a better solution!

...

"That's about right, it seems completely fine. We can depart now!"

Watching "Cyra" get up from the ground, dusting herself off, I still couldn't accept their body-swapping routine. But this time was a bit more bearable since we had reached the deep night hours and Cyra was already exhausted, quickly lying down to sleep, sparing me that unpleasantness...

To be honest, I never imagined they would apply body swapping to situations like this. I really wanted to comment - you're finally using it for serious matters!

"Be extra careful, stay safe!"

After the swap, Cyra in Cysper's body waved to us before directly crawling into the tent set up behind, continuing to snore loudly.

"Haven't you all found it strange? Why is it only Cyra and Cysper who have this peculiar body swapping phenomenon, while other angels don't have it at all? I've never even heard of such a precedent."

Gazing at "Cysper's" - Cyra's - back, Reed suddenly asked with interest.

"How would I know? Aren't you the one who's been trying to research them these past few days? You still haven't made any headway?"

I couldn't help asking back. Although Cysper had resisted Reed's pestering, he soon got used to it over time. Precisely because of this, Reed had secretly conducted quite a few harmless little experiments on his body, like suddenly plucking a few strands of hair or taking a blood sample with his consent and such. But she couldn't go too far, not just because Cysper was unwilling, but Mike as his guard would be the first to object.

"It's not that I have no clues at all. I keep feeling his physical state isn't very stable. This condition doesn't seem like a normal elemental embodiment, but more like magic..."

Reed murmured, tilting her head, about to glance back at Cyra in the tent again but shaking her head in negation since that guy had already crawled in. 

"But an elemental body formed through magic can't possibly last for too long, let alone a millennium for the Pope. So I feel like there's something off! Am I overlooking some key point?"

"It's okay, this matter isn't urgent. There will be plenty of time to research it slowly if you're interested. You can come find me in the holy capital Jethrobaines in the future..."

Of course Cysper also wanted to unravel the mystery of his own body, which was why he cooperated with Reed's research to an extent. But now wasn't the time to discuss this - we were about to depart! Finishing his words, he spread his wings and leapt off the nearby cliff!

"Hey, can you actually fly?" 

I almost cried out in shock, but immediately realized I had asked a silly question. He and Cyra had already swapped bodies more than once, surely learning flying skills in the process. Otherwise, he wouldn't dare make such a bold cliff jump no matter how brave.

"How could I, as a Pope for thousands of years, not master something so simple? Don't worry, it'll be fine!"

Sure enough, Cysper rapidly ascended from below the cliff with flapping wings. Seeing me also take off from the spot, he boastfully wouldn't stop bragging midair. But he chose the wrong person - he hit my sore spot, so I simply ignored him and flew off directly.

Even though it was just basic flight, recalling how long it took me to initially learn, some people really know how to rub it in!

Finally, after a few minutes of short-distance flight, we silently descended inside Parristol's northeast city wall without making a sound.

In this world, due to the existence of powerful adventurers, cities either didn't bother building walls at all, or if they did, constructed them extremely tall. But to save materials, they reduced the thickness while using large-scale magic formations for physical defense reinforcement. The only downside was that the top width became narrower, unable to accommodate too many patrolling guards. We took advantage of this gap to slip inside.

Come to think of it, this wasn't my first time sneaking into a city like this. But the previous occasion wasn't on this continent, it was the Dark Continent.

"Quick, conceal wings. Do you know how?"

After retracting my wings, I suddenly remembered a serious issue and immediately asked Cysper beside me.

"No problem, I learned from Cyra once..."

Cysper agreed while recalling the method to conceal wings. Unlike us who had the technique directly imprinted through memory at the start, he took quite a while pondering before successfully completing this step.

"So where are we heading now, the city center?" 

Fortunately without alerting anyone, Cysper stood at the base of the city wall, gazing towards Parristol's center. By the moonlight, we could see a huge black pillar towering in that direction above the pitch-black city. The top of the pillar was currently emitting a bright magical light - if I wasn't mistaken, that should be the famous landmark Chromos Tower.

"If Adrian is currently the king of Parristol, he should be there..."

I couldn't help sighing. Considering the purpose of this special trip to Parristol, if I could directly find Adrian and get clarification, perhaps I could stop his further actions before the situation worsened.

"So, the target is set then?" 

Seeing this, Cysper immediately started flexing and stretching, acting like a major battle was about to begin. Yet we actually hadn't even seen a single person so far.

"Let's take it one step at a time, don't get overconfident!" 

This guy had never been outside the holy capital, naturally clueless about the art of sneaking. As an experienced person, I immediately warned him.

"Even though it's just a small human city, haven't you noticed the situation here is very eerie?"

Just like the scene we saw from the mountaintop earlier, it seemed all the residential houses inside the city had no lights showing. Of course, including the houses around us now, it was pitch black everywhere, disturbingly silent like a haunted house. 

This was quite abnormal. Even if most people were asleep, it was impossible for not a single light to be on, right?