Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation(Vol 5)

Vol 5/Chapter 117: The Option of Staying Behind

The two were just chatting. Looks like they get along quite well.

"You know, the way you talk reminds me of my son! He's also in the church, but he joined when he was older, not young like you..."

Cyra's mom kept talking to herself for a while. Then suddenly she remembered something and asked, "Oh yeah, didn't you say you're in high school? So you're working part-time now? Which school you go to?"

"Haha, West City... Ninth Middle School!" Cyra laughed nervously. The questions were getting too personal. Afraid of slipping up, she quickly changed the topic. "It's getting late. Let's go back and make dinner. The traffic is messy now with parents picking up their kids."

"Not today!" her mom said, waving her hand. She pointed to a nearby bus stop. "Actually, I'm meeting a friend later. She might want to donate a big sum to the church through me. If this works out, it could really help our parish's financial problems. We might even fix up that old church building. So you don't need to keep me company tonight."

This was super rare! In H-country, not many people believe in the True Church. Finding someone willing to donate, especially a lot, was very unusual.

"Oh? Someone's being so generous?" Cyra was surprised. She didn't know the details, so she was just happy for her mom's chance. "If you can make this donation happen, your position in the True Church should get much stronger."

"We'll see if it works out, but I think there's a good chance!" Her mom looked excited. She walked towards the bus that just arrived, turning back to say, "Really, the community doesn't need to do any help for me. Even though my family had bad luck, I'm only in my fifties. I can take care of myself. You all should care more about people who really need help."

"Uh, We're just following the rules..." Cyra waved her arms, still trying to explain as her mom got on the bus. She acted like she didn't want to say goodbye.

But while Cyra was caught up in the goodbye, I noticed a black car parked across from the bus stop. It looked strange.

The car seemed to be an expensive brand. There was a primary school nearby, and it was pickup time, so there were lots of parents' cars around. If I hadn't accidentally sensed a faint trace of light element aura from the car, I probably wouldn't have noticed it at all.

Was it just my imagination? I didn't have my wings out, so my ability to sense light elements was weaker. After catching my attention, I couldn't feel that light element aura anymore.

"Okay, have you seen enough?" Surprisingly, after the bus drove away, Cyra suddenly said this without turning around.

I thought I was far enough from them, and I even disguised my looks to avoid being recognized. But Cyra was an angel after all. She must have noticed me.

"Seen enough, seen enough..." Luckily there weren't many people waiting for the bus. I stepped forward quickly, embarrassed at being caught. I whispered to her, "I didn't expect you to be so careful dealing with your family. I thought you'd just tell your mom who you are!"

"Don't be silly, I'm not stupid! Even if I told her the truth, would she believe me? Of course I have to take it slow... Hey, how did you find me anyway?"

Cyra seemed in a good mood and talked back to me like usual. But when I told her why I came, her face suddenly froze.

"So it's finally time to leave? I didn't expect it so soon. You just got here, right?"

"..."

I could see she wasn't very willing. Thinking of how well she just got along with her mom, I suddenly felt unsure.

Did I really need to force Cyra to go back?

"If you really don't want to go, you could stay..." I tried suggesting another option, but I wasn't sure if it would work.

Realistically, if Cyra as an angel stayed on Earth, she'd face a lot of problems without light element supply. Especially now that the Earth government knows angels exist, the chances of her being found might be even higher!

Of course, the space channel connecting the two worlds hasn't disappeared yet. As Earth people explore the other world more, it's possible they'll build better relations with angels. If Cyra is found hiding on Earth then, there might be room to negotiate.

Unfortunately, Reed thinks that day might never come. Once the space channel uses up all the earth elements from breaking down Battle Qi, it'll start shrinking and disappearing again. When the channel closes completely, Cyra will never be able to go back.

This is definitely a risky move, but we have one example to learn from - Cyrae, who lived as an angel on Earth for 80 years!

But I don't think Cyra can be compared to Cyrae - they're very different in personality, experience, and knowledge. Just in survival skills, Cyra is probably far behind Cyrae, who has thousands of years of Elara's knowledge. Of course, if Cyra is willing to swallow her pride, she could ask Cyrae to take care of her.

"Forget it! I'm already happy seeing my mom living well. To her, I'm just a community volunteer now. If I keep pretending, I'll probably slip up sooner or later. Even using spiritual magic, I can't guarantee fooling her every time. It uses too much magic power. Maybe she's right that she doesn't need any help."

Seeing that I was also stuck in a dilemma, Cyra sighed. In the end, she said she'd accepted it and would come back to the other world with me.

"You sure? You can resist the temptation of staying home?"

This was really unexpected. Cyra used to always talk about going home! Hearing her say this, I felt very relieved. To be honest, if she really decided not to go, I'd have a headache explaining to the Earth military and Elara.

"Of course! I'm not like you, always hesitating and worrying. Besides, looking at both worlds, the Lord is more likely to be in the other world than on Earth!"

Probably to reassure me, Cyra patted my shoulder and started walking back. "But before that, we need to say goodbye to that fat otaku!"

The "fat otaku" was Raydwin, of course. I didn't expect Cyra to call him that in private.

I couldn't help smiling wryly. I almost forgot about that guy! Too bad his apprenticeship is ending in less than a day. Wonder how long the little bit of Battle Qi he got through Adrian's help will last.

There were too many people around, so we were looking for a quiet place to spread our wings and fly. But unexpectedly, as we passed by the primary school gate, something happened.

"Tingting! Someone's kidnapping a child! Quick, catch them!"

It was pickup time after school. A middle-aged woman in office attire was walking out slowly with a little girl. But just as they were about to cross the street, a van suddenly appeared out of nowhere!

It was just an ordinary van, but it suddenly braked hard right in front of the woman and girl waiting for the green light. The door opened and a hand reached out to grab the little girl, pulling her into the van. The woman was kicked to the ground. Caught off guard, all she could do was shout for help.

This was clearly a child kidnapping in broad daylight! The bad thing was, the kidnappers planned it well. They had a car and escaped very fast. Even though people around saw it happen, they couldn't catch up in time.