No doubt about it! It was clear that no matter how you looked at it, the situation outside was much better than the cave I was in!
What was I waiting for? I immediately spread my wings and flew out. But the moment I left the underground passage, for some reason, a very vague and strange feeling suddenly emerged in my mind.
It was like everything around me had frozen, but in reality it was completely normal, as if it was just an illusion.
However, at the same time, I heard that eerie sound again, but this time it was much clearer. It was so clear that for a moment I could understand a small part of the vague meaning contained in the sound.
"...restart complete...login...successful! Jilllll! Due to...invasion...lockdown...increase rate..."
Could this actually be a voice prompt? I suddenly realized.
Unfortunately, the part I could hear clearly was still too little. Those few scattered words meant I couldn't understand the specific meaning at all. Not that I could worry about that now anyway—
The sight in front of me made me completely shocked.
Dense trees, green grass, I had unknowingly ended up in a forest! Was this the foot of Volcano Sulide?
But it didn't seem to be! There were no volcanoes around. Although there was indeed a mountain below, it would be more appropriate to call it a hill than a volcano.
"????"
So where exactly had I ended up? I hovered in the air, dumbfounded for a moment.
And the time also seemed off!
I took out my portable magic clock and looked at it over and over again. The hands were still stopped around midnight. For some reason, it shouldn't be this bright if it was normal!
I looked back at the cave entrance I had come from, but the terrain below was covered by dense branches and weeds, so I could no longer see where the entrance was.
But it didn't matter, I absolutely didn't want to go back to that eerie mountain cave! Although the situation outside also made me feel confused, at least it wasn't as creepy and terrible as before. At most, the plot was just like before - I had unknowingly been transferred to another place again. No problem, I'll just fly back!
I was used to this kind of thing!
"Maybe I should figure out where I am first..."
Grumbling to myself, I couldn't help but feel a little anxious. Gazing into the distance, I talked to myself, only able to cheer up to resolve the predicament in front of me.
To be honest, I still didn't know what had happened to Cysper. The two of us entered the cave, but only one person came out. The passage in the cave became very narrow later on, so there was no way he could have secretly circled around to my back.
If Cysper really did disappear in the passage as I suspected, I couldn't imagine where he might have ended up. I just hope he's okay.
Turning back to the present, even though I didn't know where this place was, that didn't mean there was no solution. This forest wasn't actually that big. Luckily, not far from the edge of the woods, I saw a small village. A village meant there had to be people living there! I just had to go ask.
It didn't take long to fly over to the target.
This was a small village, but I didn't dare just barge in and start asking questions. After all, with the experience of being mysteriously transported to the Dark Continent last time, who knows if this might also be a "monster village" where I could get surrounded and eaten.
But in fact, my worries were unnecessary. Moreover, the surrounding lush vegetation was completely unlike the Dark Continent. After observing people active below from a high vantage point, I ended my observation, landed safely outside the village, retracted my wings and walked in on foot.
"Excuse me, what is this place?"
As I passed by a house, a woman came out, so I quickly stopped to ask her. However, she just gave me a blank look, completely ignoring me. She then lowered her head and went about her own business.
"..."
What was that about? Maybe the person was just cold by nature. I stood there for a while, but had to give up.
There were other people in the village besides her anyway.
In the open space at the center of the village, a few children were happily playing. I was about to approach and grab one of them to ask questions, but unexpectedly I saw a familiar figure standing at the edge of the open area.
"Vivianne?"
No mistake, it really was her! Although it had been a long time, I recognized her at first glance.
Vivianne was staring blankly at the children playing in the open area. Hearing me call out, she immediately turned her head, recognizing me with a very surprised look on her face!
"Feliciana? How did you end up here?"
"Of course I came to rescue you!"
I answered happily. I had finally found her! Although this exploration took a long time and I experienced all kinds of dangers, at least nothing serious happened and the hard work wasn't wasted.
"Huh? Rescue me?"
But her reaction was strange, as if she didn't understand my rescue attempt.
"How could that be!"
"What? Weren't you being hunted down by a phoenix and that's why you hid in that cave?"
I felt confused. Could Yulanda have hidden something? Was there another story behind this?
"That's right..."
Vivianne shook her head to clarify.
"But how did you find out so quickly that I was here? It's unbelievable!"
"Quickly? I don't think so!"
Her response made me completely dumbfounded. It had been almost a month! How could she call that quick? Maybe something happy happened here, so she was not thinking straight with joy?
I started imagining nonsensical things...
"Never mind, do you know where this is? Based on past experience, maybe we were spatially transferred from that cave to somewhere very far from the original place!"
Shaking my head hard, I decided not to worry about that for now. The top priority was to find everyone who entered the cave, then figure out a way for us all to go back together.
"And have you seen Adrian?"
If I ran into Vivianne here, then maybe Adrian also came to this area. It's possible the two of them already met up. Of course, considering what happened to Cysper, it was hard to be sure if Adrian also disappeared into thin air in that cave or not.
"Adrian? Why would you say that?"
Vivianne stared at me strangely, as if trying to see through me.
"You haven't seen him? A few days ago he also entered that cave to try to rescue you..."
Seeing her response, I couldn't help but feel disappointed. Although it wasn't an outright denial, the conclusion was already obvious.
It shouldn't be like this. Since even Vivianne could safely pass through the labyrinth in the cave and come to this place, with Adrian's ability, he shouldn't have had any major problems either.
Of course, I couldn't rule out the possibility that he went the wrong way, because without being able to fly and observe from above, he might not be able to immediately find this place. If that were the case, going the wrong way would make total sense.
But if that was really the situation, finding him would be troublesome. What's more, he and Cysper weren't the only ones who had lost contact - that cave was too ominous!
"Actually, besides Adrian, there were two others..."
I pondered for a moment, then looked up and continued. But at that instant, I caught a glimpse of a metallic gleam suddenly coming at me. In the emergency, I quickly retreated, spreading my wings to dodge into the air.
That was too close! Who was attacking me?
I was scared out of my wits. Luckily I looked up half a second earlier. If I was any later, in my state with retracted wings, the opponent's weapon would probably have pierced straight through my chest.
But when I saw clearly who had attacked me from below, I could hardly believe my eyes.
"Why?"
It was none other than Vivianne who had thrust that strike at me! She was now holding up her long spear, saying in surprise:
"Are you really an angel? How's that possible! Or is it that recent disguise magic can even mimic flight now? But unfortunately for you, you overlooked one detail - Feliciana only has four wings, and she's only at the third rank, there's absolutely no way she could have dodged my strike that nimbly!"
"What do you mean disguise magic..."
I finally understood what was going on, feeling a bit helpless but also amused. So she thought I was an impersonator! But her comment about "third rank" really hurt! Didn't she know people can grow and improve?
Okay, while it's true that I'm not human anymore, and this growth rate does seem a bit fast compared to other angels...
"You're mistaken, I really am Feliciana, not an impersonator, believe me!"
Although I didn't know why she was so convinced I was a fake, I still tried to reason with her from the air.