Chapter 120: The Golden-Haired Angel’s Ascent

Aboard the luxurious cruise liner, Ellie Roth Charlotte, the grey-haired girl, reclined in a rocking chair, swirling the highball glass in her hand, though it contained only juice.

“How many more days until we reach that wretched island?”

Ellie Roth Charlotte frowned, having spent countless days at sea.

Despite the numerous amenities on the cruise, an inexplicable sense of irritation gnawed at her.

An utterly miserable academy didn’t even possess an airport, forcing them to travel by boat!

They even refused arcanist teleportation, citing it as a measure to ‘ensure the academy’s security’.

Clearly, this Principal harbored no regard for the Charlotte Family.

Ellie Roth Charlotte squeezed the highball glass with such force that it nearly shattered in her grasp.

“Reporting, Miss,” the Steward beside her stated with a serious, meticulous expression that spoke volumes of her professionalism.

“According to the Captain, we estimate approximately three more days.”

“Hmph, how tedious,” Ellie Roth Charlotte scoffed, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

“I wonder if there’s any entertainment out on the open sea; I’ve heard tales of numerous pirates lurking here.”

A smirk played on Ellie Roth Charlotte’s lips, as she yearned to carve these pirates into a thousand pieces.

Her boredom was overwhelming, and dispatching a band of pirates would be the perfect distraction.

“Miss, you jest,” the Steward replied respectfully, handing a tablet to Ellie Roth Charlotte.

“How could the family possibly allow you to deal with such pirates?”

“Even if they were still active, our fleet would have long since taken care of them.”

“This is the deployment: three attack cruisers and a submarine, ensuring your safety will never be overlooked.”

“Ugh, take it away, take it away, it’s utterly uninteresting,” Ellie Roth Charlotte waved dismissively, not even glancing at the tablet.

She despised this feeling of constant protection.

What she craved was the thrill of a powerful kill, the purity of battle; these pirates were something she could easily handle on her own.

“Yes, Miss.”

The Steward retrieved the tablet, resuming her position beside Ellie Roth Charlotte, as still and silent as a statue.

****

At this very moment, Bai Yu was locked in a relentless struggle against agonizing pain.

Fine beads of sweat broke out across her delicate frame, and the torment in her shoulders rendered her almost immobile.

She could sense something attempting to emerge from her back, yet the searing pain afforded her no time to fully comprehend the sensation.

“What in the world is happening?”

Inside the Captain’s cabin, Captain Li Hua frantically wrestled with the controls of the cruise liner, desperately preventing its descent into the churning sea.

Her mind raced, trying to decipher the cause of this sudden catastrophe.

Her only recollection was the ‘small commotion’ Bai Yu had mentioned when absorbing a wondrous item.

“You called this a ‘small commotion’?”

Li Hua’s face, etched with worry, seemed to smooth out from sheer exasperation with Bai Yu.

Had she known Bai Yu would unleash such an upheaval, she would never have permitted her to conduct such an experiment on board.

What puzzled her most, however, was not the magnitude of the disturbance, but how Bai Yu had managed to create it.

Wasn’t she merely a Tier 2 Arcanist? Official reports confirmed this; there could be no deception.

As for Bai Yu’s supposed identity as a Divine Favored, Li Hua remained oblivious, as the Dragon Summer Investigation Bureau apparently wished to keep this information from a wider audience.

Hence, Li Hua’s utter shock upon witnessing the immense commotion Bai Yu had caused.

Yet, with matters already at this point, she had no other recourse but to exert every ounce of her strength to stabilize the ship’s hull, preventing it from being swallowed by the waves.

Meanwhile, Bai Yu continued to endure immense suffering, her body almost entirely drenched in sweat.

Then, from her back, a pair of pristine white wings unfurled.

Immaculate white feathers filled the wings, and combined with Bai Yu’s flawless countenance, she resembled an angel from legend.

However, the transformation was far from complete.

A golden halo continued to encircle Bai Yu, causing her aura to shift further.

As Bai Yu, and even Li Hua, witnessed Bai Yu’s transformation into a divine being, Bai Yu’s hair and eyes turned crimson, burning like raging flames.

Indeed, no sooner had Bai Yu recovered slightly than her pristine white wings suddenly ignited.

Blazing inferno instantly engulfed the entirety of her wings.

Bai Yu stared at her wings in disbelief, utterly bewildered by what was happening.

[Quick, fly out, fly towards the sky!]

Moweila’s voice was laced with urgency, directing Bai Yu towards the window.

But Bai Yu, having only just begun to recover from the pain, stumbled precariously towards the window.

For some reason, Bai Yu found the flames on her wings rather peculiar.

They did not ignite her clothes or the furniture in the room; her garments remained utterly pristine.

Even the feathers on her wings were perfectly intact, making the flames appear more like a special effect.

Yet, Bai Yu distinctly felt the searing agony, especially on these newly sprouted wings, where the burning sensation allowed her to perceive every single part of them with astonishing clarity.

These flames were consuming her spiritual core, and Bai Yu felt her very soul being excruciatingly incinerated by their heat.

Nevertheless, Bai Yu followed Cecilia’s instructions, clambering out the window and stepping onto the outer deck.

The cruise liner’s tremors, caused by Bai Yu’s ritual, had momentarily subsided, granting the Captain a brief reprieve to investigate Bai Yu’s activities.

However, upon emerging, she beheld a golden-haired girl standing on the outer deck.

Those enormous white wings were breathtakingly beautiful, momentarily stunning Li Hua into silence.

What shocked her even more profoundly was that these wings were ablaze with intense flames.

She instantly realized something was amiss; this wasn’t a movie shoot, so who was this girl?

A theory began to form in Li Hua’s mind; despite the difference in hair color, the girl before her was almost the same height as Bai Yu, both under 1.5 meters.

Yet, just as Li Hua moved to approach the golden-haired girl, she abruptly leaped from the ship.

!

Li Hua was about to rush forward, but in the very instant of her descent, Bai Yu flapped the pristine white wings on her back, launching herself into the sky with an almost impossible burst of speed.

Unlike the previous levitation magic, this time Bai Yu’s speed and altitude were unprecedented, breaking the sound barrier in a flash.

The fierce wind forced Bai Yu to close her eyes, and though the flames scorching her wings inflicted unbearable agony.

Simultaneously, this pain allowed her to rapidly acclimate to her newly grown wings; every burning sensation sharpened her perception of them.

It was almost a morbid way for Bai Yu to swiftly mature, enabling her to master these wings in an incredibly short span of time.

High in the sky, the golden-haired girl, enveloped by her wings, soared upwards.

The flames trailed behind her like a fiery wake, continuing to burn even in the oxygen-deprived environment, a defiance of reality’s principles that only such flames could achieve.

Heaven’s Fire, Sacred Flame.

Bai Yu pierced through layer after layer of clouds, ascending directly towards the sun.

After breaking through the final cloud layer, nothing else remained around her, only the clouds below and the sun above.

The high altitude was intensely cold, yet Bai Yu’s physical constitution rendered her entirely immune, let alone her current state.

Bai Yu glanced at the beating wings behind her, realizing the flames had vanished.

The pain, too, seemed to have never existed, with only her now skillfully controlled wings attesting to their presence.