Chapter 104 Reincarnation 

"You found out after all! Though this isn't a secret, many angels are completely unaware of it..." 

As she spoke, Elara gently patted Shirley's shoulder and slowly walked over to sit next to us, continuing to explain:

"Edenmere is a small, self-contained world, so imbalance doesn't matter much. But the main world is different. When a single angel dies, the massive amount of light element released has a huge impact. Though the effect of one death isn't too bad, as the number of dead angels increases - even less than ten - it can influence the elemental balance."

"So you mean the amount of light element in the outside world is probably very high now? Haven't thousands of angels died over the millennia? It seems the number is over ten thousand already..." Cyra interjected.

"It's not that simple!" Elara shook her head and replied: 

"Nature has its rebalancing mechanisms. Once light and dark become imbalanced and the light element level rises, the levels of the other five elements like dark, fire, wind, water and earth will slowly and gradually rise correspondingly. The increase in fire, wind, water and earth is not too problematic, at most only increasing the number of ordinary creatures. But higher dark element levels are more troublesome, as that accelerates the breeding of monsters and increases their numbers!"

"In simple terms, with more fight comes fewer angels and more monsters." Nicola also jumped in. Apparently, they had discussed this topic during their earlier private talk.

"Not necessarily, you forgot about the Angel Descension Formation!" I thought of a solution and immediately refuted:

"New angels can be summoned through the Angel Descension Formation. And don't those draw in huge amounts of light elements from the main world? That would reduce the light element in the environment at the same time!"

"Feliciana is right! That's exactly what I've been doing in recent years..." Elara smiled at me in approval. 

"But sadly, the Angel Descension Formation cannot be used frequently. Even with the best luck and fastest material gathering, summoning can only happen once every few decades or almost a century. Also, the number of angels summoned is restricted by factors like ritual materials, light element level in the surroundings, and number of souls available for reincarnation. Often the number is not that high."

"So in reality, the angel population is decreasing, not increasing. This leads to the monsters increasing year by year, a vicious cycle where one side gains as the other loses. That's why after Janet's reminder, Councilor Meg also realized this and naturally took the conservative side."

"How could this be..." Only now did Shirley finally recognize the complex secrets behind elemental balance, murmuring in disbelief:

"In that case, doesn't our angel legion's resistance against the monsters become meaningless? We might even give the monsters more opportunities to grow stronger."

"How is it meaningless, you forgot what I just said? Without resistance, just letting the monsters conquer the entire world, even Edenmere couldn't escape disaster in the end! So you must be responsible for your troops, not let them sacrifice easily! Every reduction in sacrifice is the greatest contribution to the angel race!" 

"Besides, in the past century, I've learned much from humans, continuously strengthening angel legion training - what was that for? Wasn't it to improve survival rate!"

"I understand now!" Shirley immediately stood up to swear allegiance. 

"Then what exactly is the mission of the angel race? I remember Janet brought this up too - is it maintaining elemental balance?" I asked the question that had been on my mind for some time.

"I also find it strange. If the angel race's mission is maintaining elemental balance, then for thousands of years we've been destroying balance. And angels as a species inherently cause imbalance- very illogical!" Reed chimed in pensively.

"That is indeed the mission, but let's not get into it now..." Elara's expression turned sentimental at our question.

"As for Janet, she's too extreme. She probably wrongly believes the outside world's situation of monsters growing stronger is because the dark element far exceeds light, and even wants to sacrifice the entire angel race to restore balance."

"Why did the two Founders create the angel race to begin with?" Reed persisted in asking this critical question.

"Don't look at me! I don't know anything!" Seeing all our gazes turn to her, Nicola hurriedly waved her hands innocently. 

"Aren't you the Founder Liana's 'inheritor'? How do you know nothing?" I shot her a scornful look. We hadn't had the chance to interrogate her properly about Liana yet.

"I'm not a 'inheritor', it's just a declared identity..." Nicola said awkwardly.

"Shirley, go out first. What follows is confidential, you shouldn't know for now." With things reaching this point, Elara had no choice but to dismiss all unrelated personnel.

"But I want to know why the Founders created our race..." Shirley pouted unhappily, but under Elara's stern gaze could only obediently leave the conference room. 

Now only the five of us remained in the conference room. 

"So confidential huh..." Cyra muttered while staring at the door close from outside.

"What I'm about to say is a secret that only successive Elaras could know, but Nicola is after all Founder Liana's reincarnated soul. At her request, I will tell everything." Elara's words shocked us.

"No way, she's Founder Liana's reincarnated soul? I thought she was the inheritor..." Cyra pointed at Nicola, unable to close her mouth for a long time.

"I told you, that's just the publicly declared identity. Otherwise, the impact would be too great, and the pressure on me would be huge too." Nicola helplessly explained.

"So Gwendolyn and Me guessed it too, that's why they compromised?" I immediately realized this in a flash, linking it to the two Elders' change in attitude at the meeting. 

"Wait, don't forget we're transmigrators!" Cyra suddenly exclaimed loudly, which was also my puzzle.

"Nicola's soul was originally on Earth with us, right? How did she suddenly become Founder Liana's soul!"