"So, you went back to Earth 80 years ago?"
After hearing Cyrae's story, I still found it hard to believe.
Using Nicora's special power, Cyrae finally got back to Earth. But the timing was off, and even the place was way different - she actually ended up on Earth in another world, 80 years in the past!
This crazy fantasy story was happening right in front of me!
Also, H-country 80 years ago was nothing like now. It must've been super hard for Cyrae to hide her angel identity and live quietly all this time.
"But you said you got married in these 80 years, and... even had kids?"
Remembering the shocking stuff she told us earlier, Cyra frowned, looking upset.
"Hey, 80 years is a long time. It can change a lot of things, including me!"
Since Cyra was kind of another version of herself, her reaction made sense. Cyrae explained calmly with a smile, but then suddenly turned to look at me.
"Besides, looks like someone here moved even faster. I only gave in after living on Earth for over 10 years, but this guy just transformed a few months ago and already..."
"Uh, I couldn't help it! There were special reasons, you don't understand!"
I quickly tried to explain, feeling awkward. But I was worried Adrian might misunderstand, so I sneaked a glance at him.
Adrian seemed lost in thought, probably still thinking about Cyrae's story. I had to change the subject.
"Anyway, I think we need to check if your story is really true. Especially about what happened to the other me in that world. She... I mean, I... really died? That can't be right! Are you just making this up to mess with me?"
This was the most unbelievable part of the whole story. How could I, now with eight wings, only reach four wings in the other world and die after wasting a few months?
"Something's not right, definitely not right!"
After thinking it over again, I became even more doubtful about Cyrae's story. I just couldn't accept that another "me" would die so easily!
"How could I be so weak that I couldn't even dodge a few bullets? Even if... it might be a bit hard with four wings, the part about the Ilandra Dominion Empire is just too crazy! How could the empire's military suddenly get so strong? And Fernando was the one who kidnapped Michelle? That's nonsense!"
In my experience, Fernando was a high-ranking monster and Michelle's trusted aide!
Unless Cyrae was talking about a different person. But even that doesn't explain the empire's weird behavior in the other world. The empire I knew lost badly to H-country's army, which also used guns. That's why they were desperate for peace talks.
"Maybe it's possible. Don't you remember? In some ways, it could happen," Adrian suddenly looked up and reminded me.
"The Ilandra Dominion Empire in our world went through a big political change. The new emperor is Reider. There are rumors he ran away because the empire is losing power. But it's totally different from the other world where Cedric's family is still in control!"
"There are so many differences! Way too many!"
I rolled my eyes at him.
I thought parallel worlds would only have small differences in history, but that's not true.
For example, in the other world, Feliciara and Nicora woke up in Edenmere, totally different from my experience. And there were both male and female angels. What's up with that?
As far as I know, angels are only female! New angels born from the Angel Descent Formation can only be female. Otherwise, Elara II wouldn't have been so worried when the Pope, who was different, suddenly appeared.
The angels were super careful with the True Church for years because they thought Cysper might be the God of Light Beluto. This only changed after we visited the holy city Jethrobaines.
Of course, in my world, the Pope who lived for thousands of years suddenly died. Now other people are taking care of the church and the Cresthaven Papal Dominion.
Thinking about this, I suddenly got an idea and blurted out:
"Wait, what about the True Church in Cyrae's world? Is Cysper, I mean the Pope, still alive?"
Usually, since they didn't have the battle at Chromos Tower that I experienced, and never met the other world's Cyrae, the Pope should still be fine in the holy city.
"But she didn't talk much about the True Church, right? Seems like she doesn't even know about the Cresthaven Papal Dominion?"
Cyra seemed to be thinking the same thing. She cares a lot about this stuff, so she quickly asked similar questions.
"True Church? What does the True Church have to do with anything?"
Cyrae looked at us, confused.
Since there's a religious group with the same name on Earth, it took a while to explain what we meant.
"So you're saying there's a True Church in the world you went to? And it's really popular, all over the continent?"
Cyrae was shocked when she heard this.
"That's impossible! Isn't the Ancient God Religion the biggest one? The True Church is an Earth thing, it can't be in another world, uh..."
At first, she didn't believe it. But then she seemed to remember something.
"Wait, maybe I'm wrong. I think I heard about it once. It was probably when I was doing a job in the main world with the 'Post-Event Clearing' team... I think?"
Cyrus's mom is a devoted True Church follower, so Cyrae and Cyra are the same in this.
Cyra and I looked at each other. We understood that Cyrae, being so old now, might not remember everything clearly after so many years. So we didn't push her more on this.
"But if it's true that the True Church didn't exist in her world, or wasn't as popular as we know it, that could explain a lot of the differences in history," Adrian said after thinking for a while. He seemed to catch something important.
"Huh? There's something fishy about this too?"
I turned to him, curious.
I could only figure out why the other world's Feliciara and Nicora woke up with Cyrae in Edenmere.
It's simple. The reason why Feliciana (me) and Nicola ended up in Astralrealm Kingdom's forest was because the Angel Descent Formation was attacked! Only Cyra and Reed were lucky enough to be saved and taken to Edenmere. The other classmates all died from the monsters!
Why was only my Angel Descent Formation attacked? This is a bit complicated - in my world, Michelle, the monster boss, probably time traveled too.
The future twelve-winged Nicola sent her back one year!
From what I learned later from Michelle, this time travel made her want revenge on us. She told her past self where and when we'd be born, which led to the monster attack when we first arrived!
But none of this big stuff happened in Cyrae's world! Their Feliciara never went to Norvale, the capital of Astralrealm Kingdom. She wasn't accidentally sent to the Dark Continent, didn't meet Michelle, and wasn't saved by future Nicola.
Since there was no attack at the start, all the classmates who crossed over must have been fine. They were all brought back to Edenmere by the angels before waking up.