Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation(1-3VOL)

Night Talk

"Can we try purifying this too?" Seeing everyone stumped by the dark elements in the meat, I suddenly had an idea.

"Purify?" Selene's eyes lit up at my words.

"Yeah, why didn't I think of that!"

Selene immediately threw a dispel magic at the food on the table. But the ring of light fizzled out upon contacting the cooked meat, without making a ripple.

"So tricky?" Selene frowned, enduring the discomfort as she cast another dispel, but with the same result. After two spells, she was spent and collapsed into a chair, too exhausted to cast a third.

"It's no use, we still need your purification, Feliciana."

"But to use purification, I have to spread my wings..." Seeing her slumped over, I hesitated. Revealing my wings would likely cause a stir, not a good idea indoors where we could easily be exposed.

"Then we'll have to try it outside," Adrian decided after some thought. He packed up all the food into his ring, and took me out of the house.

"Be quick, we're still waiting to eat!" Eleanora reminded me as we shut the door.

Following Adrian, we came to a more open town square, scanning for monsters.

"Hurry while it's clear!"

Adrian promptly took out the food from his ring and placed it in the middle of the square. I stretched my wings in turn, firing off a purification at the pile of meat. A sphere of light burst from my palm and sunk into the meat without reaction.

"One purification wasn't enough?"

I picked up the meat and smelled it. The stench had faded quite a bit but was still noticeable.

"Faster please!"

At his urging, I quickly cast another two to three spells until I saw the meat start to glow.

"Done, let's go!" I hid my wings at the same time.

Adrian took that as the cue to gather up the food into his ring, grabbing me to run back.

This felt oddly thrilling, like we were stealing something.

Returning to base, when Adrian placed the purified food on the table, we all circled around staring but not eating.

"It didn't gain some weird new flavor after purifying did it?" Hayden inspected the meat hesitantly before concluding.

"Looks about the same."

"Should be...fine now...I think..." I wanted to reassure them but couldn't be too sure either, spearing a small piece to try.

"Mm...it's good now!" With twelve eyes watching me intently, I swallowed and pointed eagerly at the pile.

"You can eat it! Still a bit strange tasting but no stench anymore."

"Wasn't that a stench before though..." Eleanora tried a bite dubiously after hearing my verdict as an angel.

"Wow so much better!"

She nodded with excitement, eyes wide.

"Still a tiny bit, but easy to ignore now."

"Really?"

With two votes of confidence, everyone dug in without further hesitation.

"Purification is indeed most effective." Selene happily stuffed a large chunk of meat in her mouth like a hamster.

I didn't catch what she said next through the chewing. But the table was soon swept clean by six ravenous people.

"Thanks for helping solve our food problem." Adrian looked sincerely grateful.