I continued to stare at the white haired male claiming himself to be 'Cyrus'. Part of me didn't believe him but his appearance did look like a male version of how Esper's human form was described to looked like.
"Are you really Cyrus?" I asked him, skeptical.
"Who else could I fucking be if I'm not Cyrus?" he looked annoyed, "do you think someone would be so interested about what's in your brain to use a mental ability on you and stay here?" It seemed he has the hot headed personality Esper was described to have too.
"Well, Lucas just said he's wandering what's in my head."
"Because that kid thinks it's humiliating that he's loosing to someone unconscious! In full honesty I think the one who should feel humiliated is you," Cyrus pointed at me. "The one who fucked up your life is Eason but he's the one helping you at the current moment because you're a weak coward!"
"A weak coward?" I was offended by Cyrus's words. "If I'm such a weak coward then why did I awaken your power then?!"
"Because my sister was interested in your death! She thought it'd be interesting to give someone like you my powers," answered Cyrus.
"Sister?" I questioned, confused. There was nothing in the book of history about Kassiel that I studied in the academy that said anything about Esper having siblings.
"Yeah, my little sister Esper," Cyrus replied which only confused me more. His little sister is Esper? But I thought that Esper, Cyrus and Lumi were all the same being except they have different hearts and personalities.
"Aren't you and Esper the same person?"
"What? Is that what they told you? How could I be the same dragon as a weak coward like her?! Fuck she probably picked you because she use to be like you!" Cyrus looked angered.
"Are we really thinking about the same Goddess here? Esper is known as a strong dragon, not a weak coward," I said. Esper herself fought in the war called 'The Rise of Gods' and achieved the title of a Goddess as well as claimed her own land. How could a Goddess like that be the same being that Cyrus had just called a weak coward?
"Do you really think someone could be that strong from the very beginning?" asked Cyrus.
"Eason can."
"No he can't! He just gets stronger as times goes on and just because you can never beat him doesn't mean he's the strongest," exclaimed Cyrus. "On the road to become strong, sacrifices become the paths that lead one to power. Esper's no different, my older sister and I died for her to gain two powers and that brat didn't even mention us!"
"What the hell are you talking about?" I beyond just 'confused'. Everything that he's telling me are things that I've never heard of. Nothing that he's said is written in the pages of Esper's past at all.
"Damn I'm aching to get some recognition so sit down and I'll tell you what really happened."
"Sit down?" I narrowed my eyes. There are no seats here at all. My current surroundings are just a completely dark, empty void with nothing here. The only seat was the large one Cyrus was on against, but I'm 100 percent sure he does not want to share his seat with me.
"Shit, I forgot. Here," a pair of orangish red fire wings appeared on my back and lifted me off the ground. "I'll give you that so just sit in the air yeah? I'm sure you can do that somehow." Red fire?
"Why is the fire red?"
"Are you dumb? It's fire so of course it's that colour," Cyrus stared at me as if I was an idiot.
"Yes but isn't you power the power of white flames?" I asked.
"No, my power if just flames. Just listen to what your dumb history books missed out on and you'll know," replied Cyrus. "First of all, Esper was selected to participate in the competition to become a Goddess by our clan, but she was a coward and afraid of death so she begged my older sister and I to help help her," Cyrus created little people with wings from his flames.
"My older sister and I felt bad, so we agreed. My older sister's hair use to be light blue, but using Esper's power of 'modification', her hair turned white and she joined the competition pretending to be Esper. During the competition, my older sister also known as 'Lumi', used her powers to fight which made people think Esper had the powers of ice," a small person with wings and horns formed with what looked like ice shards surrounding them.
"What about you? People said that Esper also had fire powers, so did you pretend to be her too?" I asked.
"Of course I didn't pretend to be her. I may be strong and smart but I'm hot headed and people would immediately find out I'm not the cowardly Esper," replied Cyrus. " My older sister continued to pretend to be Esper, but another candidate from the elf clan found out, her name was 'Nova'."
"Nova? The current Goddess of Floran nation?"
"How would I know? I've been stuck in an unconscious state for a long time. Esper and I don't share the same memories, but her and Lumi do from the modification skill. She's probably the same elf you mentioned though. She seemed very smart so she must've survived the competition too," answered Cyrus.
Now that I've noticed, Cyrus referred to the war as a 'competition'. It seems to the ones alive back then, it was a competition of strength and power but now, we refer to it as a war because it was too brutal to be referred to as just a simple competition.
"After Nova found out, she told another candidate and seemed to make a deal with him. He was the strongest at the time and had a hard personality to deal with," Cyrus continued. When I heard Cyrus say 'strongest at the time', I could only think of one candidate, 'Azrael', an angel that was exiled from the winged clan and taken in by demons. He was seen as one of the hardest trial that Esper had to go through but in the end, she won.
"He was beaten by Esper wasn't he?"
"At least they got that bit right in your history book," said Cyrus, creating a person with large feathery wings on their knees, using their sword as support while another person with dragon wings ands horns stood in front of them. "The candidate that Nova told the truth to was 'Azrael' who was infuriated and tried to target the real Esper. She was killed but my sister and I sacrificed our lives and gave Esper our hearts which carried our powers to bring her back to life."
"So you do love her."
"Of course I do. Even if I act like I don't care and hate her," Cyrus paused, "she's still my sister."
"What happened after that?" I asked.
"After that, I didn't lose my consciousness yet and witnessed Esper awaken her courage through anger. She made my older sister and my powers hers by turning my normal fire white and my sister's ice gold, making them stronger and took 3/4 of the land Azrael had. I heard from my older sister that he still became a god with his own land though," said Cyrus.
"He did. He created a nation called 'Thanar'," I replied.
"I see," Cyrus looked like he was in deep thought for a few seconds. "I guess the only thing that I'm really mad at Esper for is my red hair turning white. My older sister and I volunteered to help her without expecting recognition anyway."
"Wait, if Nova and Azrael knows that Esper cheated, can't they tell others about it?" I asked. Even if Esper is stronger, Nova and Azrael are a Goddess and God too; the smartest and most brutal Goddess and God in fact. If they were to team up, Esper might not win.
"After loosing to Esper in the competition, Azrael swore that he'll tell no one about it and Nova seemed like she was too afraid to open her mouth. Looks like they both said nothing since your history book says nothing about it," explained Cyrus.
"You said Nova was smart right? Does she know a lot of things?"
"Well she's a hybrid between a fairy and an elf. Both of them are quite knowledgeable so I'd say yeah."
"Alright," I stared at my hands that were holding William's eyes just a while ago. "I think it's about time I go back. If Eason beats Lucas, I'll have no one to take my anger out on."
"You better make it entertaining. That Lucas kid is trying to awaken my modified flames himself. The pale blue flames mean he's very close to getting white ones, but Esper seems to be hesitating," Cyrus pointed out, "and if you want, I don't mind you borrowing my title as a God. Even if Esper's the one known as a Goddess, I'm apart of her so I too am a God."
"You offered so don't get mad if I abuse that privilege," I said before I became conscious.
"It seems you're awake now," Lucas was no longer smiling, "you can't use those sword skills while you're awake can you? If you could then you would've cut me earlier. Now that you're awake, I'll obliterate you."
"Hey," my feet lifted off the ground as a pair of white fire wings appeared behind my back, "you shouldn't disrespect a fucking god," my eyes glowed silver as shadows casted over my face from the bright fire. I lifted my arm all the way up and a large dragon claw formed from white flames appeared over my head, just like the snake head that formed above Lucas's head earlier. "Die," I swung my arm down along with the large dragon claw, crushing Lucas.
"That's quite impressive," I heard a familiar male voice say along with the sound of clapping, "but who are you? The fire head 'Cyrus', or 'Felix Infermel'?" I could feel the male's eyes on my back. It was a familiar pressure that I had felt before.
I turned around and questioned him, "what are you doing here... your highness?"
It wasn't the king, but it was his first son, 'Theodore Kascis'.