Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation(Vol 5)

Vol 5/ Chapter 119: The Clone

"Relax, you tricked him at first too! Anyway, only normal people would get improper ideas, right?"

I couldn't help laughing and took the chance to tease her. "You can only blame yourselves for living together. I think he's actually quite nice to you in some ways."

"Where else could I go if I didn't stay with him? At first, those monsters knocked me out of the sky. I had nowhere to go and no money! Only an idiot would turn down a kind person willing to keep my angel identity secret and take me in!"

Cyra didn't seem to regret it. She knew what I was hinting at, but kept complaining. "Don't worry! After that nasty landlord incident, I've been super careful! Even though Raydwin really annoyed me this time, I'm sure he'd never dare try anything improper. He knows I'm an angel - the power difference is clear. Unless he has a death wish! Anyway, we're leaving tomorrow."

Okay, I had to admit she had a point.

"So how will you explain to him that we're leaving?" I asked. Since Cyra was upset and didn't want to see Raydwin again, the original plan to say goodbye in person was obviously not happening. Was she planning to just disappear? That didn't seem very nice.

"I'll just leave him a letter! We can let the police station pass it on. Even if he's not happy, there's nothing he can do!"

Cyra's eyes lit up as she quickly made up her mind.

By now it was getting dark. The tow truck had come to take away the wrecked van, and the crowd of onlookers was starting to disperse.

Surprisingly, even though the little girl and the middle-aged woman had been taken away by the police, the black car was still there.

What happened next was even more unexpected. The driver suddenly got out of the car. He crossed the street and walked straight towards me and Cyra.

"Excuse me, my boss was wondering if you'd like to have a chat in our car?"

"Who's your boss? And why do they want to talk to us?" Cyra asked in surprise. She hadn't paid any attention to the black car, so this sudden invitation was quite shocking.

Of course I was very surprised too. Although I had noticed the car earlier, I never expected them to come ask to talk to us.

"I'm not sure about the details. Why don't you ask her yourself?" The driver was clearly very professional. He smiled slightly and gestured towards the black car, inviting us again.

"Let's just go! What are we afraid of?" In the end, it was Cyra who bravely made the decision. She tossed out those words and walked towards the car first.

When Cyra and I finally sat down inside the black car, the driver gently closed the door for us. Then he walked away, showing he wouldn't eavesdrop.

I have to say, luxury cars are expensive for a reason! When the door closed, there wasn't even a sound. The interior wasn't huge, but we could still sit face-to-face. And the leather seats were so soft and comfortable. Once you sank into them, you didn't want to get up again.

"Now can you tell us who you are? And why you wanted to talk to us?" After enjoying the comfort for a moment, Cyra suddenly opened her eyes and asked the middle-aged woman sitting across from us with a cold smile.

Now that we weren't separated by the car or distance, we could easily see what was unusual about this middle-aged woman!

Although it was far weaker than an angel's, there was a clear aura of light element coming from her. It felt very similar to a low-level mage from another world. Specifically, probably no higher than level 2 or 3 - very low-level. Could she be one of the imperial soldiers who survived coming through the portal?

But even if that was true, how could an imperial mage gain so much wealth on Earth in just a few months? Unless it wasn't obtained legally!

"Hmph, don't pretend! We already know where you're from! Tell us, where did you get this car and all your money from? It definitely wasn't through legal means!" Cyra clearly had the same thoughts as me. Before the woman could answer, she directly called out her background. Of course, she didn't forget to point at me and add:

"But if you want to live, you'd better listen to my advice. Quickly hand over all your illegal gains to us! I may be easy to talk to, but my friend here really hates evil! Those 6th level monsters were tough, right? But she killed them just like that! If you dare to be dishonest, who knows if she'll turn you to dust in the next second!"

As she spoke, she kept elbowing me.

"What?" I leaned over and asked quietly, really not understanding.

"Stupid! Play along! Hurry up and make a fierce face to scare her. At the very least, this car will be ours!" I heard her urge me impatiently.

Was that really necessary? I couldn't help but feel both amused and exasperated by her antics. Although the middle-aged woman's background was certainly suspicious, we were about to leave Earth anyway. What was the point of coveting the car? Surely Cyra didn't plan to take it back to another world to drive around?

"Oh? I'm so sorry, but could you tell me how exactly she plans to turn me to dust? With a 'Paradise Lost Shockwave'? Or a 'Holy Cross Slash'? Or maybe a 'Aurora Mega Explosion'?"

Unfortunately, Cyra's mix of threats and sweet talk couldn't scare the woman at all. She suddenly burst out laughing. She even rattled off a bunch of skill names like reading a menu.

"Huh? Why isn't she scared?" Cyra was puzzled and could only look at me in shock.

Seeing her reaction, I also felt that something was very fishy. How could a mere low-level mage know so much? All those magic names she just listed were high-level light magic by the angel race! In the human world, these were all considered god-level magic. Not only was it impossible for one person to learn them all, some were things you'd never even hear of in a lifetime.

Following this logic, the only possible identity for her was an angel! But there were only a few angels on Earth, you could count them on one hand. Unless...

"Are you Cyrae?" Although I still couldn't quite believe it, I tentatively voiced the guess in my mind.

"No way! How could Cyrae look like this? If she's Cyrae, I'll eat this car!" Cyra was stunned for a moment, then immediately denied it without hesitation. After all, it involved another version of herself, so of course she had to try to disprove it.

Her doubts made sense. Leaving aside appearance, even if an angel didn't show their wings, the light element aura they gave off shouldn't be this weak. If you weren't paying attention or were a bit far away, you'd hardly feel it at all.

"Of course the person sitting in front of you isn't me. My real self is sitting in the office. So what you see now should be my clone," Seeing our doubts, she gave a direct answer.

"Oh? So it's a clone technique?" Cyra was stunned again. After a while, she turned to me and asked quietly, "Hey, how come I've never seen this kind of clone technique before? Is it easy to learn?"

"That's high-level magic, of course you haven't learned it!" I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Actually, very few use light-element clone techniques, so even I was seeing it for the first time.

Clone techniques don't only exist in light magic. But the requirements are so high, usually only angels can use them. So humans created another low-budget version in water magic.

But the low-budget version has many flaws. For example, the movements are slow and clumsy. At most it can only briefly confuse enemies.

"If this really is a high-level clone technique, the magic consumption must be incredible! This is Earth - don't you have to worry about magic energy when using it in daily life?"

I still had many doubts. Legendary high-level light clone techniques were said to be able to create clones with exactly the same power level as the original. But there was no mention of being able to freely change appearance. The actual effect we were seeing now was too different!