"So you're saying you're also Cyrus?" I blurted out, finding this story hard to believe.
Even without saying it clearly, everyone probably guessed from the hints in her words. Plus, with looks exactly like Cyra's, this Cyrae was likely Cyrus before the class reunion!
"I don't believe it! The 'Lord' can't possibly be you!" Surprisingly, Cyra didn't seem to agree. She suddenly rushed forward, grabbed the other's collar, and shouted:
"If you came to Earth 80 years ago from another world, why did you just watch my dad get killed by Jason Lin? If you had acted earlier or finished off the Lin family decades ago, my dad might not have died! Why did you wait until everything was unfixable before slowly coming out to 'clean up'? You're not my 'Lord'!"
"Wait, this is someone else's house. Don't make trouble!" Cyra was too excited. Adrian and I didn't expect them to clash so suddenly, so we hurried to stop the fight.
Her dad's death clearly hit her hard. But her doubt was also something we couldn't ignore! From what I knew of Cyra, she really cared about her parents. If Cyrae was really Cyrus, she wouldn't have done nothing when she could have stopped it early.
"Because I'm not who I used to be..." Cyrae's clothes were almost completely messed up. But she didn't seem angry. Her gaze suddenly became sad as she looked at Cyra.
"I've lived as a woman on Earth for 80 years. I even had my own family. You can't imagine these experiences now! Actually, to avoid changing history too much, I shouldn't have acted this time. But seeing how you were back then, I just couldn't help it..."
"Why can't history be changed?" I cut in, surprised.
History can be changed, as my experiences in Makalan and Parristol proved! But only with a Fate Breaker present.
Never mind Adrian, but signs showed Cyra herself was likely a Fate Breaker too. So maybe Cyrae was also a Fate Breaker! But why didn't she want to change things?
"Because from what I figured out before, time might be linear..." Cyrae looked troubled at first. Only after I asked several times did she reluctantly share her real thoughts.
"Actually, traveling to the past to change the future rarely happened before. When I studied in Edenmere, Lady Elara only mentioned that history simply can't be changed. Any effort to change the past would just become part of history's background! So I could only conclude that time is linear and can't be changed from the past! Even if legendary Fate Breakers appear, changing my own past carelessly might make my current self disappear from the timeline! So unless I really have to, I don't want to take this risk..."
I see!
This is why she used disguise magic to look like Cyrus in the church back then!
Cyrae knew that Cyrus from that time would normally join the class reunion and travel later, just like herself. To prevent Cyrus from recognizing her after traveling to another world and transforming, which could greatly change the future and even affect her current existence, Cyrae decided to hide her appearance to reduce future uncertainties as much as possible.
As for why she had to look like Cyrus, it was because only this way could the real Cyrus fully believe her words right away!
Unfortunately, things didn't go exactly as she planned. Although Cyrus traveled successfully as expected, when she changed her name, she didn't call herself Cyrae, but Cyra.
Moreover, Cyra didn't actually travel back to Earth 80 years ago...
"What exactly did you experience after traveling to another world from the class reunion?"
What factors caused such big differences in the two Cyruses' experiences? To the point that Cyrae couldn't bear to give up her current self, even willing to watch her father's death happen again?
Thinking about this, I became very interested. The whole thing wasn't really that complicated - Cyrae was just Cyra from a parallel world!
Although when she first traveled back to Earth 80 years ago, she probably had no idea that the world could have two completely different parallel paths. But her actual past experiences might have become totally different from Cyra's after being reborn as an angel, not to mention living on Earth for 80 years!
"When I stood alone outside Aurora Entertainment's KTV seeing you all off, I even thought only Cyra could travel through the space tunnel and finally return to Earth. Now I finally understand... You're not the Feliciana I knew! She wasn't as powerful as you. She only had four wings, and she sacrificed herself to save me!"
Hearing me say this, Cyrae's eyes suddenly became wet. She stared at me, sighed deeply, then slowly began to tell her story.
This is a story that happened in another world, to another Cyrus.
"You're awake? I have good news. The surgery was successful. You've become a girl now!" A familiar voice woke Cyrus up. Facing the bright sunlight, Cyrus finally opened her sleepy eyes with difficulty, and found that the speaker was actually Henderson, her middle school classmate and friend!
"Get lost! Why is it you again?" Cyrus waved her hand impatiently and turned over. She vaguely remembered that at last night's class reunion party, Henderson kept trying to make him drink while holding a beer bottle. Cyrus still hadn't fully recovered from the shock of his father's death one year ago.
Thinking about how Liam Lin and his father Jason Lin, the main culprits, were still free and doing well, she became very frustrated. Henderson's attempt to make him drink certainly made things get out of hand.
The two seemed to find kindred spirits in each other. In the name of drowning sorrows, they kept pouring large amounts of alcohol down their throats, one cup after another. Cyrus couldn't even remember when he completely fell asleep.
"So it's morning already? I stayed in the KTV all night?" He suddenly woke up completely. He hadn't gone home all night and didn't know if his mother, a devout believer, had come back from church.
Since his father's death, only Cyrus and her mother were left with each other. Although they got over 100,000 bucks in "compensation", it wasn't enough without a permanent home.
Because of this, Cyrus spent most of his last few college semesters working part-time to help with family expenses. But with a big mortgage to pay, they still lived very tight lives. He hadn't found a formal job even by graduation.
"Wait! This isn't the KTV room?" He finally noticed something strange. KTV rooms are usually closed with no windows. There shouldn't be sunlight coming in. Moreover, where he was lying wasn't the KTV sofa, but a soft single bed! Everything around showed that things were not right.
"Am I in a hotel... huh?" Looking at Henderson with confused eyes, Cyrus suddenly felt he was having an illusion - the guy in front of him seemed to have changed a bit too. He couldn't say exactly how, but he just looked more handsome than before!
Although she could still recognize his face overall, the wings flapping behind him showed that things were not as simple as he imagined.
"What's this? Cosplay?" Although everything seemed weird, this was the only guess that made sense for now.
"Of course not. Don't you have them too?" To his surprise, Henderson showed a strange smile and pointed at Cyrus's back.
"Damn! What's going on? Why do I have wings? Wait, and my voice..." Cyrus finally couldn't hold it anymore. Everything was developing in a way he never expected. A sharp scream suddenly sounded in the room.
...
"That's how it is! They say the place we're in now is called 'Edenmere'! It's all because of some accident with the Angel Descent Formation. Those of us who woke up first have already been told what's going on. Sorry, you're the last one to wake up!"
After a while, with Henderson's patient explanation, Cyrus slowly understood the truth.
They had traveled to another world!
Because of the Angel Descent Formation in this world, all the high school classmates in the KTV room at Aurora Entertainment had traveled! The Angel Descent Formation is how angels increase their numbers, so when their souls traveled to this world, they went through a rebirth process. In other words, all the former high school classmates had been reborn as angels!
"But why are you still a man while I became a woman? That's not fair!" Cyrus still couldn't accept this point. Everyone was reborn, but if gender didn't change, appearance usually wouldn't change much either. Although her current look in the mirror was quite pretty, there was no doubt that she had changed so much that even her mom wouldn't recognize her!